Mahoning River Cleanup July 20th
 

We will meet at Canoe City, 75 N Leavitt Road, Leavittsburg, OH 44430, at 8 to 830 am. A quick cleanup of the portage area at Canoe City to include some weed whacking, litter pickup, and one tree removal. We will then shuttle to Foster Park. Put in at approximately 10 a.m. Please pack a lunch. We will stop at Rotary Park to eat lunch. We will then work our way towards Canoe City. Volunteers are asked to bring long handle tools for reaching litter along shore and caught in logjams. Please bring your own gloves to handle garbage and trees. Chainsaws and weed eaters will be needed if you can bring them. (We won't be taking the weed eaters in boats) If you have a canoe please bring it. Everyone taking part in the cleanup must wear a personal flotation device and sign a waiver.

Anyone that would just like to do the AM portion from Foster Park to Rotary Park no problem as we are going to shuttle that also. This would be about 6 miles instead of the 16 total. Still meet at Canoe City between 8 and 830 Sunday morning.
Any questions please feel free to call me at 724-813-5641 or E mail me at sgbc@zoominternet.net
The more the merrier!
See ya Sunday,
Steven

PS: We have someone to shuttle lunch for us so you won't need to carry it on board.

I'll be there to help you in the canoe. Lora is coming with the kids (they can pick up litter in and out of boats).I wonder where I can get some small gloves? I think I have a small rake to snag litter with. Dan may come up from Columbus to help.What should I pick up for lunch?

Linda

Friends of the Mahoning will be joining us in this clean up effort. Hope TCT has a good showing.

I might have three pairs of gloves from the Shenango River Watchers event last spring. I'll try to dig them up. I also have lots of big trash bags if you want me to bring them.

Will have plenty of trash bags but could use the gloves. See ya there.

I have a bunch of gloves I'm going to bring, some of them are for kids too. Unfortunately I have not received word of anyone from the Friends able to make it yet.

Not sure how many will be there to help. We will do what we can with available people.

Planning to be there, but probably not for 16 miles. Would prefer focusing on a shorter distance, say Foster to Rotary, Rotary to Swift, or Swift to Canoe City.

I think that's a good idea JP. Depending on how many show up, decide what can be done.

Hope the weather cooperates. Is this rain going to make the water level too high? What does the club consider too high for this section of the Mahoning?

If I'm reading the USGS site right it's saying the river is at 4.24 at Leavittsburg.

Event Summary
 

Was a beautiful day for a paddle.
Many THANKS to Livi, Nathan, Lora, Linda, Tom and JP.
We cleared a bit at the Canoe City Portage and Thanks to Tom the Portage at Rotary Park is again usable.
Worked to clear the channel from Foster Park to Rotary Park. The river remains blocked in at least 2 locations as JP and I were unable to complete the in and on river clearing task after many hours.
Thanks again for all your help.
Wish someone would find and FINE for Littering the group that held a rubber ducky race and left them all to be washed downstream and collect as trash and litter all along the banks. Must have been hundreds of them trashing the log piles and banks. GRRRRR!
Hope the rest of the club members had a great day......

Agreed on the rubber ducky's. If anyone knows which organization near Newton Falls might have held this event please let me know. I would simply like to speak with them regarding how we might prevent this from happening again.

As Steve said, we were able to create an opening on a river-wide log jam between mileposts two and three on the Mahoning down river from Foster Park. How long it will remain open or whether it will be passable when the river level drops is anyone's guess. There really needs to be more work done to create another opening for this jam. Steve worked his tail off with the power saw and moving logs around.

There is a very large tree down, also between mile marker two and three a short distance below the first jam, that is blocking the entire river. It was too big a job to take on the second blockage with the time we had available.

Tom did a great job cutting out a ton of poison ivy at the Rotary Park takeout.

We really could have used more help. The first jam could use a team of four or five to clear other openings.

Steve, JP, and Linda did a ton of work - it's eye-opening to see how much volunteer labor is required to keep the local rivers passable. Thank you thank you thank you! Many thanks also for rescuing Livi and Nathan when their mother took a wrong turn. Lesson learned: always take the food with us in the kayak! We could have fed it to the mosquitoes ...

Skeeters were very very bad. Poison Ivy nasty too. Although the weather could not have been better!