No rain...no rain...no rain. Might as well make the best of it. We had a good Friday last week with Paul and a couple of folks from the Lumber River paddling club on Little Contentnea Creek. It was about 15 miles and had some pretty streches. There were a couple of exposed banks with fossilized shells and many a beaver dam. With the water about 3" too low, we ended up bumping over quite a bit of lumber.
On Sunday, I had posted a flat water cruise for the CCC to Rhodes Pond to get back down there and do a little exploring. A group of 9 (with as many that backed out at the last moment) faced a windy day that turned out very pleasantly up among the cypress. It's a beautiful place that I still want to go back to to see if we can get a little further up the watershed.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
An Open Letter to the North Carolina Legislature
Every month, the Carolina Canoe Club cleans the litter from each of the Haw River canoe access points that the Club uses often for paddling (Chicken Bridge Road, US 15/501, Bynum, US 64, Robeson Creek). Volunteers sign up annually for cleaning one or more acceses each month. I have been a frequent contributor to these cleanups as I deem the Haw my "Home River" and paddle it often when it flows (The Haw is among the most popular whitewater paddling destinations in the piedmont of the State).
This was my month to clean the Bynum and Hwy 64 accesses and it was a free day so I decided to follow up with an additional cleanup of the river section between Hwy 64 and Robeson Creek Accesses from my canoe. After collecting a full bag of litter from the accesses, I proceeded downriver. Three hours later, I had to stop picking up litter along the 2.4 mile section because the total weight of the litter accumulated was making the canoe unsafe to paddle in the cold February water (This is frequently the case on cleanups...there's not enough canoe space to hold it all). I proceeded to the Robeson Creek Access and bagged up two more full trash bags, two tires, a tire casing, a 55 gallon steel drum (emptied of who-knows-what) and a large piece of plastic. This was a pretty typical day of cleanup. I had only attempted to pick up the litter that was accessible from the canoe and had not wandered ashore to try to clean the trails along that 2.4 mile stretch (all of which are now in the Haw River State Park).
To add some context, this river corridor, along this small section, is blessed with an annual cleanup sponsored by the Haw River Assembly and the Carolina Canoe Club. I made several monthly trips to the accesses as well last year with similar results except for the US 15/501 access where 6-8 bags of trash (Lawn-sized bags) is the norm: that's 6-8 bags per month.
What constitutes this huge pile of trash? Disposable, single-serving beverage containers far outnumber any other category. Soda, bottled water, sports drinks all are part, but the vast majority are containers obviously left by those euphemistically termed "subsistence anglers". This is a coy term for those who spend endless hours at streamside consuming incredible quantities of alcoholic beverages, littering the stream banks with beer bottles and cans, liquor bottles, cardboard 12-pack boxes, plastic chicken liver and worm tubs, used baby diapers (parents setting a great example for the next generation), and unbelievably often; socks! It's almost guaranteed there will be socks mixed in with the other litter. I'll never understand that. More often than not, there will be grocery and/or trash bags lying right next to the piles of litter: Bags that could have easily been used to transport out everything that was brought in.
Is environmental degradation, eyesore, and growing public burden not enough to cause a change? How about if we throw in the fact that many, many of these "subsistence anglers" have now taken up the habit of creating 'fishing tackle" by wrapping yards and yards of monfilament line around these disposible bottles and cans, fishing (a.k.a. drinking) for hours and then disposing of these balls of heavy line on the spot. What happen to these nests of plastic when they are flushed (or thrown) into streams? They unravel and unroll and now leave yards and yards of veritable garrotes laying in wait for the first swimmer, kayaker, boater, or even fish to come along and become hopelessly and possibly fatally entangled. This is a public safety hazard and is an immense one for my segment of the population (whitewater kayakers) and for another sector that seems to receive a lot of lip service... children that also frequent these areas to swim. Finding these 'spools' is not an uncommon event. They are left as carelessly and as often as beer bottles and cans becuase they have no value other than that recognized on-site. Need a spool next time you're there? Drink a beer, open your new spool of line (cast away its wrapping), open a new package of hooks (cast away its wrapping), open a new package of sinkers (cast away its wrappinng), open a tub of chicken livers (cast away its tub), sit down and finish off that 12-pack, finish "fishing", leave it all there along with your styrofoam luch tray, Doritos bag and the grocery sack you bought it all to the river in and stumble away. I'm not kidding. This is how it happens.
This is not an isolated occurrence and may well represent a best case as a waterbody that is receiving specific TLC to maintain even a modicum of of temporary reprieve from burial in trash. I have begun frequent paddles on Lake Jordan and its shoreline is heavily littered: obvious and obtuse. The Lake itself does not yet enjoy the efforts that the Haw receive just a few miles upstream and down to the Lake's upper reaches. Litter plagues our mountain and coastal plain stream as well. It is a extremely rare condition any more to stumble upon a 'pristine' mountain stream untouched by human flotsam. The French Broad River, Nolichucky River, Nantahala River, the Mayo, Dan, Neuse, Lumber, New....an endless list where piles and pile of trash accumulate at any bend, any beaverdam. I spent 28 and a half years as a water quality biologist in service to the citizens of NC and I have seen a dramatic increase in this problem in the last decade all over our great state. It is now getting worst by the year.
How does a society allow this to happen? Why do blind eyes gaze away from this problem? How does social conscious sink to the depths that considers this acceptable behavior? While the 1,100 + members of the Carolina Canoe Club supported Senators Berger, Cowell, Goss, Graham, and Kinnaird in their effort to pass the Litter Reduction Act of 2007, this was apparently a flash-in-the-pan passing fancy for the remainder of the legislature. Do these other individuals not look out their windows when they are traveling North Carolina's highways and byways? Do they not set foot on, in, or near our precious water bodies and see this problem? Were they not themselves the generation at the heart of social memes including "Every Litter Bit Hurts", "Keep America Beautiful" and "People start pollution...People can stop it"? Have we all forgotten that famous tear running down the cheek of Iron Eyes Cody as he looked out on streams and highways being littered? Some of us have not forgotten. Groups like the Stewards of the White Oak River dedicate their paddling to cleanups. The CCC itself started cleanrivers.org simply to highlight the problem and thank those who try to be the solution. I paddle with the mantra "Trash Every Trip".
I urge, plead and beg the North Carolina legislature to acknowledge this problem and take action to reverse its course. It is obvious that there is a segment of the public that requires additional motivation to change their habits. Whether governmental intervention comes in the form of a carrot or a stick, that intervention must happen. We are seeing an irreversible degradation in a public resource and a related concurrent rise in a public safety hazard. The problem is even now becoming a perception that our land, once called a "Variety Vacationland", is becoming a landfill. We cannot let this happen on our watch. This constitutes my family's values and I would like to ask for my share of representation.
Larry Ausley, CPM
Water Quality Biologist, retired
Past President- Carolina Canoe Club
Whitewater Kayak Instructor
Board of Directors- American Canoe Assocation
North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine
This was my month to clean the Bynum and Hwy 64 accesses and it was a free day so I decided to follow up with an additional cleanup of the river section between Hwy 64 and Robeson Creek Accesses from my canoe. After collecting a full bag of litter from the accesses, I proceeded downriver. Three hours later, I had to stop picking up litter along the 2.4 mile section because the total weight of the litter accumulated was making the canoe unsafe to paddle in the cold February water (This is frequently the case on cleanups...there's not enough canoe space to hold it all). I proceeded to the Robeson Creek Access and bagged up two more full trash bags, two tires, a tire casing, a 55 gallon steel drum (emptied of who-knows-what) and a large piece of plastic. This was a pretty typical day of cleanup. I had only attempted to pick up the litter that was accessible from the canoe and had not wandered ashore to try to clean the trails along that 2.4 mile stretch (all of which are now in the Haw River State Park).
To add some context, this river corridor, along this small section, is blessed with an annual cleanup sponsored by the Haw River Assembly and the Carolina Canoe Club. I made several monthly trips to the accesses as well last year with similar results except for the US 15/501 access where 6-8 bags of trash (Lawn-sized bags) is the norm: that's 6-8 bags per month.
What constitutes this huge pile of trash? Disposable, single-serving beverage containers far outnumber any other category. Soda, bottled water, sports drinks all are part, but the vast majority are containers obviously left by those euphemistically termed "subsistence anglers". This is a coy term for those who spend endless hours at streamside consuming incredible quantities of alcoholic beverages, littering the stream banks with beer bottles and cans, liquor bottles, cardboard 12-pack boxes, plastic chicken liver and worm tubs, used baby diapers (parents setting a great example for the next generation), and unbelievably often; socks! It's almost guaranteed there will be socks mixed in with the other litter. I'll never understand that. More often than not, there will be grocery and/or trash bags lying right next to the piles of litter: Bags that could have easily been used to transport out everything that was brought in.
Is environmental degradation, eyesore, and growing public burden not enough to cause a change? How about if we throw in the fact that many, many of these "subsistence anglers" have now taken up the habit of creating 'fishing tackle" by wrapping yards and yards of monfilament line around these disposible bottles and cans, fishing (a.k.a. drinking) for hours and then disposing of these balls of heavy line on the spot. What happen to these nests of plastic when they are flushed (or thrown) into streams? They unravel and unroll and now leave yards and yards of veritable garrotes laying in wait for the first swimmer, kayaker, boater, or even fish to come along and become hopelessly and possibly fatally entangled. This is a public safety hazard and is an immense one for my segment of the population (whitewater kayakers) and for another sector that seems to receive a lot of lip service... children that also frequent these areas to swim. Finding these 'spools' is not an uncommon event. They are left as carelessly and as often as beer bottles and cans becuase they have no value other than that recognized on-site. Need a spool next time you're there? Drink a beer, open your new spool of line (cast away its wrapping), open a new package of hooks (cast away its wrapping), open a new package of sinkers (cast away its wrappinng), open a tub of chicken livers (cast away its tub), sit down and finish off that 12-pack, finish "fishing", leave it all there along with your styrofoam luch tray, Doritos bag and the grocery sack you bought it all to the river in and stumble away. I'm not kidding. This is how it happens.
This is not an isolated occurrence and may well represent a best case as a waterbody that is receiving specific TLC to maintain even a modicum of of temporary reprieve from burial in trash. I have begun frequent paddles on Lake Jordan and its shoreline is heavily littered: obvious and obtuse. The Lake itself does not yet enjoy the efforts that the Haw receive just a few miles upstream and down to the Lake's upper reaches. Litter plagues our mountain and coastal plain stream as well. It is a extremely rare condition any more to stumble upon a 'pristine' mountain stream untouched by human flotsam. The French Broad River, Nolichucky River, Nantahala River, the Mayo, Dan, Neuse, Lumber, New....an endless list where piles and pile of trash accumulate at any bend, any beaverdam. I spent 28 and a half years as a water quality biologist in service to the citizens of NC and I have seen a dramatic increase in this problem in the last decade all over our great state. It is now getting worst by the year.
How does a society allow this to happen? Why do blind eyes gaze away from this problem? How does social conscious sink to the depths that considers this acceptable behavior? While the 1,100 + members of the Carolina Canoe Club supported Senators Berger, Cowell, Goss, Graham, and Kinnaird in their effort to pass the Litter Reduction Act of 2007, this was apparently a flash-in-the-pan passing fancy for the remainder of the legislature. Do these other individuals not look out their windows when they are traveling North Carolina's highways and byways? Do they not set foot on, in, or near our precious water bodies and see this problem? Were they not themselves the generation at the heart of social memes including "Every Litter Bit Hurts", "Keep America Beautiful" and "People start pollution...People can stop it"? Have we all forgotten that famous tear running down the cheek of Iron Eyes Cody as he looked out on streams and highways being littered? Some of us have not forgotten. Groups like the Stewards of the White Oak River dedicate their paddling to cleanups. The CCC itself started cleanrivers.org simply to highlight the problem and thank those who try to be the solution. I paddle with the mantra "Trash Every Trip".
I urge, plead and beg the North Carolina legislature to acknowledge this problem and take action to reverse its course. It is obvious that there is a segment of the public that requires additional motivation to change their habits. Whether governmental intervention comes in the form of a carrot or a stick, that intervention must happen. We are seeing an irreversible degradation in a public resource and a related concurrent rise in a public safety hazard. The problem is even now becoming a perception that our land, once called a "Variety Vacationland", is becoming a landfill. We cannot let this happen on our watch. This constitutes my family's values and I would like to ask for my share of representation.
Larry Ausley, CPM
Water Quality Biologist, retired
Past President- Carolina Canoe Club
Whitewater Kayak Instructor
Board of Directors- American Canoe Assocation
North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine
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