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Traverse Area Paddle Club

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Trip Reports

June 9 - 7th Annual Betsie River Sweep Cleanup

Published on 6/9/2018


Saturday, June 9, 2018
Benzonia Michigan
7th Annual Betsie River Sweep Cleanup
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A large group of people from all walks of life joined in today to do this 7th Annual event.

John Ransom from the Benzie Conservation District and Norm Fred
of the BRCS co- led the project.

Mike Jones and his mom cooked the pancakes at the Congregational Church
in Benzonia that got us started off on the right foot.

We had 4 groups this time and all went smoothly with few mishaps and
almost everyone stayed dry.

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Section #1 -  Homestead Dam to US31 Campground

The river was full and pushy but we managed to get a lot of trash and fishing line and
hooks out of the trees and off the banks. The photos tell the story better than I can.

We found less than the usual amount of trash in the river but about the same amount
of fishing related debris.  Heavy line, hooks, lead weights, floats, flies, lures, etc.
were everywhere we looked at first but it got better as we got closer to US31.
We took 75 gallons of crap out of the river.  It wasn't heavy but it was 11 bags full.
Several of the TAPC crew had  lunch at Geno's in Thompsonville.

This section is just one mile long.
There was so much debris, it took us 3 hours to clean it.
That's 1/3 mile an hour.
A baby can crawl faster than that.  <|:>)

All the photos from all the groups can be found here:
 
All Betsie River Photos

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Section #2 - US 31 to Grace Rd.

Things went well.  While a bit cleaner than I've seen in the past we did get a bit of
fishing line hung up in trees - with Mike's extended lopper coming in handy.
Near the sawmill, just before the Grace Road access, there is a left hand channel
with a log jam.  In it Susan came across a mother-lode of trash that took both
Mike and her to clean.  Compacted a bit I think we got at least 20 gallons of trash.

Gerald Wilgus

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More to be added later:












Respectfully submitted:

Norm Fred
Boardman River Clean Sweep Website