Duck Hunting, Rockport to Grigsby Ford, 8/16/14

[Cowper]

We will launch from the Rockport boat ramp (at the WW park) at about 2 PM. Shuttle will already be set.

OK, it's really just a river clean up. But it should be made a little more interesting by the fact that we're going to see how many rubber ducks we can find. There should be a good number, as a large group of them escaped from a fund-raising event Saturday a week ago. By large group, I mean I know it was more than "dozens", and it could be hundreds.

Just to keep the on-line discussion civil and save you some time, I'm going to tell you about the range of emotions I went through. It started with anger that someone would let that much litter get loose on the river; we have enough trouble with folks littering a few cans and bottles at a time that we certainly don't need anyone dumping it in by the bushel basket; it was totally avoidable. It took me a day to figure out which organization it was. Once I did, I wanted to turn them in to ADEQ, AGFC, and anyone else would take a written report. But I know agencies have trouble dealing with "unusual" reports, so I held off on that. But I still had to calm myself down for about 24 hours before making initial contact with the organization responsible.

What I found is that we have is a local organization of good people, trying to do something for a good cause, that made a mistake. A big mistake, but still an unintentional mistake, and one they regret and feel bad about too. So pick your favorite cliché about rock throwing or living in glass houses, but that's what we have. Last year they were successful in doing a rubber duck race for their fund raiser, and they had a duck count so they're sure they lost not more than one, or possibly zero ducks on the river. But this year Entergy released water earlier in the day, it caught them off guard, so the wading methods they previously used to keep all the ducks under control fell apart on them.

So I've decided to help them recover as many ducks as I can, and make up the difference in other litter, which I'm sure will be abundant given the number of floaters we see losing cans and bottles as they float over the ledge. In return I'm going to ask them to make some specific changes for next years event so that they will be ready for any river level and can prevent any more ducks from getting loose.

I apologize for the short notice; I had to make a last minute change to work around some other schedules... (life is grand when you have too many fun things on the calendar)