Triangle Kayakers & Beyond at Martha’s Chapel Rd. site

The Triangle Kayakers & Beyond, the Kirby Family, Great Outdoor Provision Co. and the Jordan Lake EagleCam Viewers all had their first cleanups in April and May.

The Triangle Kayakers & Beyond group is tackling a perpetually littered section of shoreline off Martha’s Chapel Rd. They will also be removing bottles and rusted metal that are buried in an old dumping pit just a short distance away from the shoreline.  Several plastic tubs (see photo) were filled with bottles dug out from the pit with a shovel.  The tubs  were hauled down a long narrow path to the roadside for transport to a Chatham County Collection Center.  Many more tubs will be used to get the job done during future cleanups.

The Kirby Family has adopted the east side of small cove that ends at Lystra Rd.  This group includes school friends of their children as well.  They are trying an experiment to combat littering.  A trash barrel will be brought to the site to offer shoreline users an alternative.

Chad (L) is manager of the Chapel Hill store and Aubrey (C) and Mike (R) are members of his staff.

The “bounty” from first cleanup by the Jordan Lake EagleCam Viewers

The Jordan Lake EagleCam Viewers group has adopted paths on either side of Rt. 751 that lead down to the White Oak Creek shoreline. Litter along the roadside near the bridge over the creek is also an  eyesore.  So this group is cleaning here as well.

About 90 members of the Morrisville and Cary 1st  wards of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came to Jordan Lake on successive Saturdays (May 4 and May 11) to combine community service with fun family activities. They rented picnic shelters and campsites  within the Jordan Lake State Recreation Area  and worked hard for a couple hours to remove litter at Ebenezer Church, Poplar Point, Crosswinds, Seaforth and Vista Point Areas (see brown-colored areas on map below). The yellow highlighting identifies the targeted shorelines.

The small group of adult volunteers shown in the photos car pooled a short distance from the Vista Point Area to clean a section of Wilderness Island.  Just last year our volunteers had cleaned here.  However trash continues to accumulate from upstream sources on the Haw River.

Staff from the Jordan Lake State Recreation assisted n planning the activity.  About 85 bags of trash were removed.

With budget cuts to state agencies, keeping up with litter can be difficult within our state parks. The success of these community service days shows the power of volunteerism.

Five New Groups in the Adopt-A-Shoreline Program

We have added five new groups to our Adopt-A-Shoreline Program since March 2013 bringing the total to 11.  The goal is to keep recreational access areas clear of trash by conducting three cleanups per year while also using the signage to raise public awareness.    Here is the list of participating groups: Carolina Kayak Club; Great Outdoor Provision Company; Jordan Lake EagleCam Viewers; Jordan Lake Environment Education; North Carolina Geocachers Org.; Raleigh Sail & Power Squadron; The Kirby Family; Triangle Kayakers & Beyond; Triangle Trail Hikers;  US Coast Guard Auxiliary; and the Weaver Creek HOA.  The general locations of the adopted sections appear on the map below.

This Google Map provides exact descriptions of each along with locations of other sections available to adopt.  Details of the Adopt-A-Shoreline Program are found at our website.

On Saturday, March 16th, 115 volunteers showed up at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Visitor Assistance Center to participate in Clean Jordan Lake’s event in support of the Haw River Assembly’s annual Clean-Up-A-Thon. Each year, the Haw River Assembly organizes hundreds of volunteers who do a wonderful job of cleaning trash all along the Haw River. Clean Jordan Lake has participated for the last four years, focusing their effort on the shoreline where the river forms the lake.

This year, our volunteers cleaned about 2 miles of shoreline stretching from the Poe’s Ridge Boat Ramp to the face of Jordan Dam as well as a popular fishing spot on the bank of fast-moving water behind the dam.  They collected nearly 450 bags of trash, enough to fill two dumpsters provided by Chatham County’s Solid Waste & Recycling Division of the Environmental Quality Department.

The Army Corps of Engineers provided boats to ferry trash to the dumpsters, with assistance from several boating volunteers.   In addition to 143 tires, several large propane tanks, a container full of lubricating oil, and a large refrigerator were removed.

Most of the length from Poe’s Ridge Boat Ramp to Jordan Dam had been cleaned before by our volunteers in previous HRA events held in March 2010 and 2011, so it was interesting to see how much trash had entered from the Haw River since then. The bag total for this area was still quite high, perhaps over 300, but the tire count was less than 25, compared 278 in previous events.

The reduced tire count may be related to a switchover several  years ago from charging tire dealers to dispose of tires to a disposal tax paid by customers buying new tires. This has reduced illegal tire dumping, but the bag count indicates that general littering in the watershed continues.

This year’s event saw far greater participation by kayakers. About 15 of them paddled over to Wilderness Island to walk the shoreline of a section just north of the tip and readily accessible only by boat.  Most of the tires came from this area. Our boater motored over to pick up the trash and bring it back for unloading.

A new feature of the cleanup this year was a trash treasure hunt.  Three of the five selected items that had washed up on the shoreline in storm flows from the Haw River were found.  Successful trash “treasure” finders claimed prizes of day packs donated from REI and a gift certificate from Great Outdoor Provision Co.

While not a Trash Treasure Hunt item, one volunteer found a bottle with a note in it, dated 2002 and the volunteer wants to contact the sender.  Other weird items included a cabbage patch doll with a hideous look.

As reported in an earlier blog, CJL has a cooperative agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers to assist in its natural resource management, parks and recreation programs and other activities at Jordan Lake.

Screenshot of Corps’ EagleCam website

We are proud to announce that donations to the Corps’ new Jordan Lake EagleCam project can now be made at our website by clicking on the yellow donate button. Just indicate that you would like your donation to go toward the EagleCam as explained on the Home Page.  The Corps has kindly agreed that donations in excess of their needs for this project could be used to support our activities that remove trash from the shoreline habitat.  These include purchase of a used pontoon boat to speed ferrying of volunteers and trash during our cleanups and to provide a greater presence on the lake; production of a public service announcement about trash prevention for airing on local TV outlets; and production of a short video documentary for social media outlets to explain how each rainfall event washes trash from the vast watershed via the Haw River and New Hope Creek into the coves and along the shoreline of the lake.

The Adopt-A-Shoreline Program was started in March 2012 with Jordan Lake Environment Education (JLEE), Weaver Creek Homeowners Association (Weaver Creek HOA) and Raleigh Sail & Power Squadron.  In December, the NC Geocachers Org formally joined although two previous cleanups had taken place. We are grateful to the Biogen Idec Foundation for funding the start up so we could design, purchase and install signs.

Denise Nelson (L) and Eleanor Herr (R), co-leaders of JLEE

The results have been spectacular.  JLEE has recruited middle and high school students as well as Boy Scouts to assist in maintaining the Wildlife Resources Commission access at Bell’s Church, the adjoining Farrington Rd. roadside and the shoreline to the north of the Crosswinds Boating Center ramps.  They have also found time to clean the shoreline near the eagle observation deck off Martha’s Chapel Rd.

In total, JLEE volunteers participated in eight cleanups and removed 186 bags of trash.  As important, they made 175 youth more aware of the trash problem.  Eleanor Herr, co-leader of JLEE, points out that trash just continues to pile up only days after each cleanup. She concurs that the long term answer is to reach recreational users of these access points with a message of better environmental stewardship.

National Junior Honor Society students from Mills Park Middle School participate in JLEE cleanup

Weaver Creek HOA has been tackling another habitually littered access point known as Glass Beach, just off Pea Ridge Rd.  In three cleanups, 65 bags of trash have been removed.

Shelly Ryder organizes her neighborhood group and brings out about nine volunteers for each event.  This shows the power of a small group to make a big difference. It is exactly the model we intended in creating the program.

Weaver Creek HOA at their first cleanup

The Raleigh Sail & Power Squadron is led by Jim Frei. All of his volunteers are avid boaters on Jordan Lake.  Their area of shoreline is across Beaver Creek Rd. from the entry to the Ebenezer Church Boat Ramps.  In three events, 12 volunteers have removed 27 bags of trash. and 1 tire. They will expand their area in 2013 to include the boat ramps across the road.

Raleigh Sail & Power Squadron July Cleanup

Finally, NC Geocachers Org enjoys participating in their sport on Wilderness Island along the Haw River Arm. Before formerly joining the program, they had organized two cleanups in 2012 on the Haw River Arm.  In total, this highly energetic group led by Douglas Ward has removed 132 bags of trash and 16 tires in three events involving 67 volunteers.

NC Geocachers Org ready to start on Wilderness Island

To summarize, the inaugural participants in the  Adopt-A-Shoreline Program have done a great job of keeping their shoreline sections free of trash.  So far, 278 volunteers have removed 407 bags of trash (that’s about 4 tons) and 17 tires.

We have six more sections of shoreline ready to adopt.  Please consider this opportunity to do your part in preserving the beauty of Jordan Lake.

NC Geocachers Org with just some of the many trash bags filled in Dec.

This map shows the length of shoreline cleared of trash and tires in the last 6 months by wonderful volunteers from Change the Triangle, NC Geocachers Org, GlaxoSmithKline, Triangle Trail Hikers and the general public at our NC Big Sweep event.

Shoreline cleaned from June to December, 2012

The latest effort has been at New Hope Overlook Jordan Lake State Recreation Area by the Triangle Trail Hikers and by yet another energetic group from GlaxoSmithKline.  Jon Holliday, the organizer of Triangle Trail Hikers flagged trash areas along the shoreline in November and recruited members to remove it.  Conn Harrington and crew from GlaxoSmithKline came with a pontoon boat to remove yet more trash at New Hope Overlook and another small section to the south.

The results are spectacular.  Walk or paddle along these 7 miles of shoreline and you will now see only natural beauty.  About 400 volunteers, each working 3 hours, accomplished this restoration.  They removed about 1,500 bags of trash (roughly 15 tons!) and 500 tires. None of this would have been possible without donated services and supplies from the Corps of Engineers, Chatham County Solid Waste & Recycling, Jordan Lake State Recreation Area, NC Big Sweep and NC Department of Transportation Highway Stormwater Program .

Even more impressive is what our volunteers have done since Fall 2009 — over 1,600 volunteers, have removed 6,100 bags of trash and over 2,700 tires from 15 miles of shoreline.  Come join us and help make a difference!