Help Clean Up The River on June 13th!

Don Roberts & the Coosawattee Watershed Alliance need help this Saturday, June 13th in a big clean-up of the Coosawattee River. Here is the “backstory” of the clean-up and information on how you can help.

"Just after Ivan came through, I noticed a large group of guys eating lunch together at the Apple Barrel, on a Monday holiday. One of the guys looked familiar, and that's where I ran into a good old high school friend from Griffin Georgia, Billy Taylor. Come to find out, he and several of his crew at Georgia Power had volunteered their day off to go down to the Cartecay River to begin dragging hard debris from the banks, and trash from the river. Besides renewing an old friendship... (Billy, Dr. Mike Zager and I played on the football team together), we found that we had a common interest in cleaning up rivers.

"In the fall of 2006, Billy and I put together a team of friends and family to get that one last camper trailer out of the tree (down-river from the GA Power operations center), and then kept going. With a lot of help from the county (who supplied a big dumpster and dumping), and the EMA who supplied a john-boat, and especially the members of the American Legion (who supplied about 15 people and a place to stage the dumpster, and cooked burgers for the volunteers) we had a good time and cleaned up all the chicken boxes, banding strips, and general junk that flowed downriver.

"Since that time, Billy has been in a motorcycle accident, and is now wheelchair bound. In his honor, because he would be leading this cause if he could, a group inside the Coosawattee River Resort and the CWA have begun a two weekend river sweep. These photos were taken last Sunday, and we need some more volunteers for this Saturday, June 13th.
The idea is to clean-up in advance of the 300+ boaters who plan to paddle through Ellijay on the June 20-21 weekend. Maybe if the river is running (with these recent rains) and is a little more aesthetically pleasing, we can have those fine folks come back to town as a group, or individually, in the future.".... Don Roberts


Here's the plan...rain or shine:

~ Saturday morning, 8:30 - enter the Coosawattee River at the city park, on the south end, beyond the sand volleyball court.

~ Bring your own canoe or kayak, and any tools.

~ Picnic lunch provided by Coosawattee Watershed Alliance, at Fish Trap Park (inside Coosawattee).

We will organize take-out and shuttles back to the park, after the work is done.

Any questions, contact:

Scott McBride
Coosawattee Watershed Alliance
Scottmcbride1@hotmail.com
706-669-4274