Archive for July, 2011

U.S. Army helps Save the Maumee!

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

July 16th 2011– United States National Guard helped Save the Maumee River! Lead by Staff Sergeant Grimm and Sergeant Michele Berkes-Adams along with a medic and 20 recruits removed large items in the Maumee River in Riverhaven, (a three mile stretch between Fort Wayne and New Haven). – The U.S. Army works on “green drills” several times a year and had chosen to help Save Maumee!  Items removed include a teddy bear, 10 tires and assorted car parts, steel drums, a sump pump, 2 children pools. Hats off to the men and women who keep us safe through cleaning up the large items that nobody else can remove without being put in harms way! Canoes were provided by Fort Wayne Outfitters/Bike Depot and Earth Adventures; two competitors working together to improve our rivers.

 img_7202.JPGAnyone missing a Teddy Bear?

Here are two seperate stories from the Journal Gazette! http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110717/LOCAL/307179893/1002/LOCAL

Troops attack Maumee trash

– Ten tires, two kiddie pools, a sump pump, a microwave and a doll head were among items collected by Staff Sgt. David Grimm’s Indiana Army National Guard team Saturday afternoon in the Maumee River.

As part of the National Guard’s nationwide Guard the Environment campaign, Grimm’s troops collected trash – 40 bags’ worth – along the river from near the Wells Street Bridge to the Thomas L. Deetz Nature Preserve in New Haven.

The cleanup crew included about 20 new enlistees in the recruitment sustainment unit, a preparatory stage before basic training and boot camp.

Sgt. Nathan King also participated in the five-hour effort, which started at the river banks near Fort Wayne Outfitters and Bike Depot on Saturday morning. He said the service project “shows that we’re growing as a community to help the families” of Fort Wayne appreciate the city’s three rivers.

“This is definitely one of the things the community wants to see,” he said. “It’s unifying, for one thing.”

Grimm said the river sweep also provided a valuable experience for his troops, many of whom are still learning basic skills and courtesies.

“It’s a way to give back to the community before the community gives back to them,” he said.

The National Guard unit first heard about the volunteer opportunity when one of its members, Sgt. Michele Berkes-Adams, became involved with Save the Maumee, a local river advocacy group.

She said the city economy could benefit from cleaner rivers, especially with businesses such as the Depot promoting river recreation.

But Abigail Frost-King, Save the Maumee’s founder, is hesitant to declare victory. She said she encountered some obstacles as she tried to organize the cleanup.

For example, she said Fort Wayne city government refused to provide a Dumpster for easy disposal of the extracted trash because Kreager Park, the project’s approximate end point, is not within city limits. She also noted the state Department of Natural Resources will provide garbage-collecting boats only twice a year.

Regardless, she praised Grimm’s troops for fulfilling a dirty task most workers avoid at all costs.

“No one else is cleaning up the waterways,” Frost-King said.

psvitek@jg.net
GO ARMY!

Published: July 16, 2011 3:00 a.m.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20110716/LOCAL/307169930/1002/LOCAL

Guard recruits help clean the Maumee

If you see soldiers in canoes Saturday floating down the Maumee River, don’t panic. It’s not an invasion, but rather a war on trash.

They are recruits with the Indiana Army National Guard, performing a community service project under the direction of Staff Sgt. David Grimm of Detachment 1, Company A of the Recruiting and Retention Battalion.

The soldiers have not yet gone on to basic combat training, or “boot camp,” but are still looking to serve their community. And this weekend, that’s cleaning up the Maumee River in an effort to help out the non-profit organization, Save the Maumee.

Using canoes from Fort Wayne Outfitters and other organizations, the soldiers will float down the river from Fort Wayne Outfitters, near Wells Street in downtown Fort Wayne, and heading east toward Kreiger Park, Grimm said.

Along the way, they’ll pick up trash and clean up what they can, he said.

Every three months or so, Grimm takes his soldiers out to perform a “green” community service project such as ripping out invasive shrubberies at Allen County’s Fox Island Park.

“We just feel that the community does so much for us, and it’s kind of like our small little token to give back,” Grimm said.

In his opinion, Fort Wayne is one of the most military-friendly communities in the country and it is important for the soldiers to contribute to it, he said.

“They’ve done so much for us, and we’re trying to help in every little way we can,” he said.

rgreen@jg.net

OR see all our pictures from the day on Facebook HERE: By Save Maumee’s Photographer Dana Jinx
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.212413145471728.51379.150537961659247&type=1

Botulism Report of Dead Birds still relevent

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

From the Emmet County Lakeshore Association Fall 2010 Newsletter:

During the fall of 2007 there was an estimated 8,000 – 10,000 water birds that were believed to have died from botulism poisoning along the northern Lake Michigan shoreline.  These water birds included loons, gulls, and all ducks, local and migratory in Lake Michigan.  

There is the chain of events leading up to the botulism toxin poisoning of sea birds:

1) Botulism is naturally occurring on the lake bottom.
2) Mats of Cladophora algae (the same algae that is thick along the Lake Michigan beach) are believed to be caused by clearer water, caused by the invasive zebra and quagga mussels’ filtration of plankton from the water and from the mussels’ excretions causing the fertilization of the algae.  These mats create an anaerobic condition on the lake floor which causes the botulism to produce a toxin.
3) The toxin is ingested by the mussels.
4) The invasive mussels are then eaten by the invasive round goby fish.
5) The dead round goby fish float to the surface and are eaten by sea birds.
6) The toxin causes a paralysis and the birds die from drowning or exposure.

Male Mallard Duck on the Maumee River

This past Summer of 2010 there were reports of dead Round Gobies washing up on shore.  This Fall there have been several reports of sea bird die-offs.  Mark Breederland of Michigan Sea Grant reported 25+ dead Red-Necked Grebes in the vicinity of Brevort River in Mid September. Based on these reports, it is believed that it could be another year of botulism deaths of fish eating birds migrating along Lake Michigan. If dead birds are found DO NOT touch with bare hands to dispose of the carcass.  Dead birds should be handled with gloved hands and can be placed in garbage bag for disposal or buried with a shovel.  PLEASE check the birds leg to see if it is banded.  CALL 906-370-1231 if it has a band on its leg.