Today we had 17 people volunteer to help do the annual NCF River Cleanup. There were a lot of people
in town but not many along the river and none on the river paddling and only two fishing near the Bay.

We found very large and heavy construction debris just down stream of the new bridges that are being built
at the South Union Street crossing and the North Cass Street crossing. We reported it to the City Parks and Rec.

There was also a lot of smaller litter all along the river, including a lot of broken glass. 20 bags total.

We also found and removed two traffic barrels, one traffic cone, a shovel as well as many pieces of fishing line and
lures in the overhead trees and from under some of the pedestrian bridges. We also removed debris generated
by the MIDWAY crews in the large parking lot next to the Grand View Parkway.

Paul Ton released an injured Blue Jay that had been ensnared in some fishing line in a tree. (Sorry no photo.)

These cleanups are not easy. But these people are special and do not think of these projects as work.
Look how happy these two are.

We used this project as an opportunity to get some photos of our group with the Consumers Energy Foundation's
banner that they graciously loaned to us for this purpose. We really appreciate our grant from the CEF this year.
It meant that we did not have to have a fund raising raffle this year which takes a lot of time and effort. We spent that
time and effort doing 19 cleanups at illegal dumpsites which greatly improved the environment in Grand Traverse County.

Troy Daily of Kayak, Bike & Brew had Joe run our short but very important shuttle with their tourist bus in the morning.

We had a great lunch provided by KFC with a discounted price and free drinks. The entire cost was less than $4.50 each.
It was a really nice homecooked meal, no one went home hungry and we had leftovers. Thank you!!!! KFC of Traverse City.

The trash was disposed of into a dumpster at Dr Paul Sternhagen's office in Traverse City filling it about hafl way.

The traffic cone and barrels were donated to the Bethlehem Lutheran Church for their NCF youth group parking lot fund raising
events. The BLC church has been a longtime financial supporter of the BRCS and this is a way we can show our appreciation.

Our thanks go out to the National Cherry Festival for their continuing financial support of this project and our other work
clearing illegal dumpsites in Grand Traverse County.

All the photos can be seen here:

ALL the NCF Cleanup Photos

Our work today was partially funded by grants from

The Consumers Energy Foundation

MI-CORPS

National Cherry Festival Foundation

Adams Chapter Trout Unlimited

And private donors like you.