Volunteers needed for cleanup, March 8, 8am -noon.

[Tim Eubanks]

Information on the city-wide clean up in Little Rock, March 8. A contingent of Central chapter folks will be on hand to help with cleaning various sections of Fourche Creek.
From Norm Berner, clean up coordinator with the city of Little Rock:

From the intersection at South University Avenue and 65th Street, continue west on W 65th Street about .7 miles to the main entrance of Hindman Park. (This major intersection is just 4-traffic lights south of the UALR Campus from the big South University, Asher Ave. and Colonel Glenn intersection. It is also about 3 traffic lights south of the University Ave. exit, off I-30).

Follow the park road about .4 miles, to a 3-way stop.

Continue through the 3-way stop [Don't make a left-hand turn and go over the bridge]!

Make a left-hand turn into the stone parking lot, just past this intersection. This area is just to the right-hand side of the bridge that goes over Fourche Creek and takes people up to Hindman Golf Course.

We'll use the grassy area next to the launch ramp, to provide additional parking space for all of you.


Once you have arrived and parked:

The sign-in area for everyone bringing a canoe or kayak, will be at the concrete picnic table next to this stone parking lot.

We will have a supply of the orange, reuseable litter bags from the Arkansas Stream Team.

We will also have a ground support team who will assist you. When you need to get rid of full bags of trash, just look for someone walking along the top of the bank, primarily on the south side of Fourche. Please rendezvous with them at a safe location for each of you, when you need to off-load your trash.

If you have limb loppers and other brush cutting equipment and want to bring them with you, there will be limbs and other obstructions that can be trimmed along the creek from your canoes and kayaks.

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me:normbd@hotmail.com

Thanks for coming out to Hindman Park to help! You'll see Western Hills Park on the open area on your left, as you travel downstream. We don't have any launch area from this new park that is currently under development, but you might see some people working as you float through this area.

[Cowper]

It will be another day before we get the official NWS Saturday forecast, but I see that Friday they are calling for 63 degrees and mostly sunny, so I'm hoping for PERFECT clean-up day weather. Warm, but no bugs, what more can you ask for?

I've heard unofficially that we will be going down to Benny Craig park; if there are volunteers to move one or more vehicles for us, that would be great! If not, I'll just trust that we can figure out a shuttle the "day of", as we have all done 1000 times before. River distance appears to be about 2.6 miles; getting to Benny Craig by noon will be a challenge given that we know this is going to be a "target rich" environment.

I really like that they are thinking ahead about intermediate places to off-load trash. This makes a huge difference, especially if we find tires or other large items.

[Lupe]

If the goal is to get to Benny Craig, we should probably have teams that start at Western Hills, at University and at Mabelvale Pike assuming we could get access. Mabelvale to Benny Craig will be the longest with no other road crossings, so I think we need a team to start there as early as possible.

[Ouachitoff]

Am planning on going but only have kayaks, anybody with a canoe got room for 1? I can help with running shuttle too if need be.

[Cowper]

The problem is, one person weighs as much as several tires , so we can typically get a lot more trash if most of the canoes are paddled solo to maximize trash capacity. Unless some more loaner canoes materialize, I would suggest paddling your yak and just plan on offloading trash frequently to one of the canoes as we all go along

[Ouachitoff]

Sounds good. I'll bring my saw

[maggiepowell]

I will do my best clean up from my kayak. I could possibly borrow a canoe from one of the many open boaters I know, but transport is the problem with that idea. I could also walk along the bank but would have no way to pick up heavy items or carry bags if they get too full.

Maggie

[Cowper]

Good points and ideas, Lupe!

I meant to call Tim to confirm section today, but waited too late .

A slight variation on your idea: we could also divide into teams, with some teams "racing ahead " until they get to those intermediate points before they pick up any trash. This SHOULD work , but I know in the past we have had difficulty paddling past trash on a cleanup day .

[Cowper]

This is very tentative, but if I am not working Friday, Debo and I may go check out the area and begin picking up on Friday. Post up if you would join.

Also, we may not get the sunny Saturday I had hoped for , but it now looks like the showers will hold off until later in the day, so that is good news.

[Cowper]

OK, some updates:

Meeting at N34.6964 W92.3604, which on some maps is 34 Windsor Drive in Little Rock. However, be careful, some mapping programs may mislead you. If you cut and paste N34.6964 W92.3604 into maps.google you can get full directions and I can guarantee you the dot is on the spot where you will find several other ACC members at 8 AM tomorrow!

The meeting organizer wants us to just show up at 8 AM and get further instructions at that time. We will of course try to cooperate, but the stretch from Benny Craig to Interstate park is probably longer, and with multiple braids and at least two or three major logjam portages, and really not suitable for a "morning only" type clean up effort. To put it bluntly, WE are floating from Hindman to Benny Craig, since several have afternoon commitments and there is rain coming in the afternoon anyway.

The Benny Craig take out is at N34.70275 W92.32668 for those that wish to enter it in your GPS, but don't worry about that part, we are generally planning to run our shuttle in the morning and stay together as a group on the creek. The is some minor potential for taking a "wrong turn" on the creek, so I do suggest you stick near someone who either knows the area or has a GPS.

[Cowper]

To avoid any potential confusion, I recommend we put any further questions and answers on the other thread that is talking about his same clean up.

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