AMI clean up crew

Today was the Pisgah Forest Clean up day.  Due to the extreme amount of trash along the Davidson River, we focused our cleanup efforts on this part of the forest.  This is also one of the most heavily use sections of the forest between the entrance and Looking Glass Creek.

Jenny Wallace, Ed Maggart, Rodney Lanier, David Sweet, Ada Weaver, Benjamin Weaver, Patrick Weaver and Brooks Wallace all pitched in to tackle this task.  David came in from Colorado to help out.  After finishing our coffee from Indy Coffee we headed to Sycamore Flats Picnic area.  Our goal was to focus on the riparian environment.  This led to digging around the weeds and bushes near the water’s edge.  We did tackle the picnic tables around the water and found anything from bottles to diapers.  The kids got into it and began looking for all kinds of trash, we made sure they had gloves; well Ben did for a while anyway.   After filling several bags and tossing them into the dumpster.  We headed to the next location, Davidson River Camp Ground.

Trash at a picnic area

At the DRCG, we focused on the area upstream and downstream of the bridge.  The area abounds with bait cans, bottles and fishing line.  I even found 10 Bush Bean cans that were still full (rusty and old, so don’t think I took someone’s picnic).  This quickly filled another bag of trash.

Illegal fire ring and trash

We left and head upstream for more fun.  At the swimming hole we found a shirt, bottles and more bait cans, but most of this was at the pull off.  The real mission was just upstream.  At the confluence of Avery’s creek and the Davidson river, a camp (not really suppose to camp there) had piles of glass and trash, even a pair of shorts.  This was a big object for me.  I had traveled to each pull off along the 5 miles of road (18 in all) and hiked in to see the impact.  The picnic areas have obvious trash that someday would get pick up by a visitor or overworked Forest service employee, but the for me the greater concern was the areas that people would not pick up the trash.  These are the areas where people hike in, just far enough to be out of sight and leave trash for the next explorer to stumble upon.  These areas rarely get picked up and this was the first one on the list.

Ed had to leave at this point, but his efforts were greatly appreciated.  The rest of us move up to a picnic area that had a campsite back in the woods.  At last! Rodney found us and pitched in.  Rodney had been driving around looking for us at the fish hatchery.  He did a great job pitching in and helping here.  This site had been there for a long time and obviously accumulated multiple layers of campfires and trash.  We packed out the trash and removed the fire ring from this location.  This area filled one trash bag!

At the bridge over Looking Glass Creek we found the smelliest trash.  Rodney and I were the unfortunate ones who found a cooler full of rotten trash.  There was an inner tube and other camping supplies across the river in the woods.  It takes some individuals that care about this place to make an effort in keeping it beautiful.  I want to say thank you to all the individuals that came out to make this happen.  If you are interested in helping, please keep your eye peeled for the fall river clean up in September.

Thank you and have a great day!

Clean streams in NC

Patrick Weaver