It was a gorgeous fall day to be joined by GCP members
Ingrid Gennity, Keith Franklin, Susan Reycroft,
Michelle Francesco, John Simpkin & other friends at
the Foothills Conservancy Annual River Clean Up.
Leap frogging down the river bank we picked up
throngs of trash that included a lovely (so I’m told) roll of green carpet, the usual abandoned mattresses, a glut of cheap beer bottles & of course all the unmentionables found in the “cozy†spots along the river shore.
Our host for the day was Foothills Conservancy Vice
President, Pete Bell, who was extremely pleased with the turnout from Gold Country Paddlers. Back at “base camp†while we related our cleanup triumphs, Pete filled us in on a lifetime of river conservation. (Some of
which can be found here:
www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=14626)
Pete went on to explain the reasons for the irregular
low flows on the Mokelumne this year, which included facilities maintenance by PG&E. And of course, some of us took full advantage to query Pete about the whitewater flows for Tiger Creek where we learned the impressive boater counts from last summer’s releases are in the midst of being compiled and reported by BLM.
This information will be discussed among other managing agencies, interested parties and PG&E to further our flow opportunities on this stretch of the Mokelumne & others in the near future.
We ended the day at Mountain Mike’s where we ran
into our old Moke friends Rex & Marlene Gideon – go
figure – it’s a small paddling world! Overall, in terms
of the Mokelumne River itself, the clean up was a great success. THANKS TO ALL OUR FINE VOLUNTEERS!
And Pete tells me for the next clean up the
Foothills Conservancy would like to coordinate with
GCP to provide a prize for the most unusual piece of
trash. Perhaps next year we’ll find a lovely roll of orange shag carpet!