Fourche Creek Cleanup - Saturday March 14, 2015

[Cowper]

Join the ACC Central Chapter and Friends of Fourche Creek (FOFC) for a clean up of Fourche Creek on March 14!

Some of you who have been following on Facebook already know this, but as of February 14 we had cleaned 5-1/2 TONS of litter and garbage out of Fourche, including 128 tires. But most of what we got was near Interstate Park. On March 14, we'll be working the area near Benny Craig park, so there is still plenty to do. I'm happy to report that you can really see a remarkable difference in the areas we have tackled.

This event is just one part of a city-wide clean up effort sponsored by Keep Little Rock Beautiful.

I'll try to attach the official flyer, but here are some key points:

Date: Saturday, March 14, 2015
Time: 8 AM to Noon. I have alerted the organizers that some ACC participants are coming from far out of town, and we won't be in "full force" until about 9 AM. Most of us will take a break at noon, and then continue to do some more work after lunch.
Place: Meet at Benny Craig Park in Little Rock, which is at N34.7025 W92.327 NOTE: There is a "typo" in the GPS location printed on the flyer; THESE are the correct coordinates. You can also find this park by entering 4610 Gum Springs Road, Little Rock AR into your smart phone or car navigation system.

In general, ACC members will be working the area near the park, and possibly floating from University Avenue down to Benny Craig. We will also paddle about 1/2 mile downstream from the park and return upstream. In the afternoon, some of us may go to Interstate Park to retrieve bags of litter left along the creek by shore based crews, if that is needed.

I hope to see some of you there!

I'm going to be out of town until the day before the big event, but Heather (Lupe) has agreed to keep things organized for us, and can answer questions.

Watch the next newsletter for a report on what has already been done this year, and a future letter for things that FOFC will be doing to try to keep some of the trash from getting into the creek in the first place.

[Cowper]

It's almost here!

Lupe has been doing a lot of organization and preparation work, but I thought an update might be in order for those of you who aren't Facebookers.

I think a few things to know are
1) Saline River Canoes is loaning us a number of canoes. If you boatless friends, maybe we can put them on the water with you.
2) If you have a canoe or kayak, we may need you to help keep things safe by helping us keep an eye on any novice paddlers.
3) with more and more folks coming (local scout groups, for example) those of us who live close enough are now going to try to get there by 8 AM, instead of targeting 9 like we were thinking. But if you can't make it until 9, that is still fine! One option for late arrivals will be to just put in at University and paddle downstream until you catch us, which should be about 5 minutes after you start downstream.
4) There will be an "after lunch" adventure too, so you could join as late as 1. We'll be moving down to Interstate, then going upstream to collect bags left for us by other volunteers. There is a CITR event scheduled as a joint effort between our club and the geocachers. However, plans could change at the last minute due to weather, number of participants, or other factors, so if you're not going to be there in the morning to hear any announcements, then please give us a call and check for late breaking news.

[Louiscov]

Hi gang, any updated information? Thinking of driving up for this, thnx

[Lupe]

Okay folks, everyone wants to know: is the clean up still on?
Or is the event postponed?

Yes!

Here's the deal: the Fourche is way high and all those wonderful target rich debris fields we want to knock out are now under water. Yeah, there's trash in the water we could spend time fishing out, but we are going to be very, very inefficient trying to make a big impact under these conditions. And we are kinda all about the "GIT R DONE." We're not going to be able get a whole lot done with the creek this high. So we want to be efficient and smart - as well as safe - and find a future date when the water level will let a big group of volunteers really get in there and kill it.

What this means is the official ACC portion of the March 14th event is going to be postponed.
However, a small group of us still will be there Saturday morning and we will be cleaning out the trash booms at Benny Craig and at least one other floating trash pile just upstream from there. We may largely attack these via jon boats vs. canoes, although experienced boaters can certainly deploy canoes for this.

If several hard core folks will show up and join us, we will most certainly find an interesting adventure for you to help us with - either right at the booms at Benny Craig or perhaps a bigger adventure after.

Cowper and I are off to do a final intelligence gathering mission (aka fun jon boat ride in the rain!). We’ll post more info later.

So should you come on Sat March 14th? If you can, yes, still come and help us knock out those booms really quick, or just to say hi and take a look at the swollen creek. But if you can’t come, no worries, check back and catch us for the postponed clean up date!

ALSO, WE HAVE STARTED A NEW FACEBOOK GROUP DEVOTED TO TRASH PICK UPS - SEARCH FOR ACC BOATR ON FACEBOOK AND CHECK OUT OUR PHOTO ALBUMS!