AMC members and clubs highlighted. Note: George Cartamil is also an AMC member and is our
Trails Supervisor for East of Hudson Trails, but was paddling and cleaning up the Ramapo with MCKC today.
Area Clubs get good press for this year's clean-up efforts on New York rivers. . .
On May 21, 1997, 21 AMC members cleaned-up the long neglected 
Rockland County, NY, section of the Hackensack River. United Water Company of NY arranged for access to the river through water company property, provided a pickup truck with a driver and box lunches, and a $250 donation to help the Canoe & Kayak Committee with its conservation efforts. The Town of Clarkstown provided a 30 cubic yard Dumpster.
We started south of the Lake De Forrest Dam on the north side of Old Mill Road in West Nyack. We cleaned about 3 miles of the river, picking up Styrofoam cups, beverage cans, plastic bottles, toys, spray cans, plastic cups, glass beer bottles, shopping carts, tires, rims, rugs, shipping pallets and plastic sheeting. We filled the Dumpster , but have not yet completed the job. We went back in 1998, see above.
In May 1996, along with many local civic organizations, we were part of a project to help local residents cleanup a several block section of the Bronx River just downstream of the Bronx Zoological Park, in New York City. More than 40 AMC members, including about 20 paddlers, helped remove thousands of pounds of trash from the river, and assised more than 100 local residents clear and begin landscaping several acres near West Farms School for a mini park on the riverbank.
Paddlers and many local residents pulled numerous auto body parts from the river and moved tons of dirt and stones and other litter from this potentially lovely section of New York City. Cleaning up the Bronx River may not sound attractive to most paddlers, but thousands of people were affected and impressed by what we did in their community. It was an important and successful project for the New York-North Jersey Chapter as well as its Paddlers.
Click HERE for more information and photos.
For the fourth year, NY-NoJ Chapter Canoeists participated in National River Cleanup Week. This year, we put all of our efforts into cleaning a section of Crosswicks Creek in west-central New Jersey.
We picked up tires, bottles, cans, and all sorts of stuff, in the meantime avoiding, or trying to avoid, the poison ivy that profusely blankets the river banks. The biggest, and heaviest treasure was an old fire door that must have weighed 200 lbs! By lunchtime, we had reached the Arneytown-Hornerstown Road bridge where we left our collections for a later pick up by a Monmouth County Park ranger.
After lunch, we continued our collecting, finding more tires and all sorts of miscellaneous stuff. Then we came to a real challenge - a spot where the river bank had washed out and there were several large trees blocking the river. There was no way to paddle through this; our only choice was to unload the boats, pull them up a 10 foot bank, walk around the downed trees, and put-in again downstream. This took awhile, but eventually all the tires were rolled along the portage path; the boats carried; and we were again on our way.
By 4:30 we had reached the take-out at the dam at Walnford Park where we unloaded our boats and were on our way to the campground for the evening that was provided (gratis) by Monmouth County Parks, who also agreed to dispose of all of our trash.
The next morning our group had dwindled to 3 tandem boats and one open solo, but the small size did not dampen our spirits. We intentionally avoided all the tires in the "rubber rapids" because we knew that the park has been working on removing these tires for the past several years. However, there were plenty more tires downstream, and we had our choice of many as well as lots of inner tubes and other things. By the time we reached the "iron bridge" we decided to call a halt to the cleanup. Dirty and tired, we unloaded the boats and headed for home, feeling very good at the amount of trash that we had removed.
Over the weekend, we pulled out 27 tires, some of them huge tractor tires; the fire door, around 35 bags of assorted trash and pieces of metal.
The Rockaway: Lots of tires, and the discovery that this stream appears to be the locals' dumping grounds. Much too much stuff for one group to clean! After a letter to the editor in the Morristown Daily News, several groups have come forth offering assistance for next year... the Rotary, and Friends of Rockaway River.
"AND THE WINNER IS . . ."
Van Caliandro took this picture in May, 1994, after spending a day cleaning up the Rockaway River. She sent it in to the photo contest associated with National River Cleanup Week and won FIRST PLACE! Aside from the recognition, she also got money! The photos were judged based on their ability to capture the spirit of the volunteers' efforts and energy during the clean up. This was a small trip, only 4 boats, but just look at what they got out! Second Place went to Blue Mountain Canoe Outfitters cleanup on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and Third Place to Richmond Raft Company, Coastal Canoeists, and Friend of the James River in Richmond, Va.
According to America Outdoors, the national coordinating organization for National River Cleanup Week, the total tabulations for all the 1994 cleanups were: Number of trips registered; 438. Estimated number of volunteers: 37,167. Estimated number of miles cleaned: 6,319. Estimated amount of trash collected: 3,048,918 pounds. This includes cars, toilets, mattresses, appliances, boats, rugs, shopping carts, tires, bikes, road signs, etc.
The Paulins Kill: 4,314 lbs of trash, which included 87 tires...Joe Caprara with 6 tires stacked in his boat. Priscilla Wu in her "new" Mickey Mouse Shorts. Two fine china, porcelain pots, a sink, chairs, sofa. Who's setting up housekeeping?
May 1-9, 1993, was the second annual National River and Trail Cleanup week. Again this year, the NY-NoJ Chapter Canoe & Kayak Committee participated in this event for the May 1-2 weekend, and continued the cleanup of the Pequest River in northwestern New Jersey. This year we started cleaning where we left off in 1992.
During this second weekend, our group was able to cleanup about 6 more miles of the Pequest, from the New Jersey State Fish Hatchery to the Warren County Route 519 bridge in Bridgeville. We did not aggressively clean the mile from there to our take-out near the County Route 620 intersection with Route 46, since White Township had cleaned this section two years earlier.
Based on the amount of junk we removed, the sections we cleaned in 1993 were more dirty than the sections we cleaned in 1992... or perhaps the experience of 1992 made us better cleaners in 1993. We had 20 people on Saturday and 13 on Sunday. We got out about 53 garbage bags of styrofoam cups, beverage cans, glass and plastic bottles and assorted small things, 13 tires, 5 or more old 55 gallon drums, a mattress frame, a TV antenna tower, many feet of plastic tubing and hose, a gallon of some liquid and assorted metal things, tubing, muffler, bike parts, table tops, chain, hub caps, propane tank and etc. We estimate that we removed over 2000 pounds of junk this second weekend. We did not get out two water heaters, several rusted tanks, and a few more rusting 55 gallon drums.
May 2-10, 1992, was the first annual National River Cleanup Week sponsored by numerous government, canoe, fishing and conservation organizations. The Appalachian Mountain Club, New York-North Jersey Chapter, Canoe & Kayak Committee supported two cleanup trips during the week. One Chapter trip was on the Housatonic River in Connecticut, and and another on the Pequest River in west-central New Jersey.
The Pequest is a delightful little stream best known as the location of the new Jersey Trout Hatchery, and is heavily used for fishing. The lower section is the most popular for trout fishing and easy whitewater canoeing and is the most heavily littered.
Over the two days, our group was able to cleanup about 6 miles of the Pequest, from the Alphano Road bridge near Vienna to the New Jersey State Fish Hatchery. We had 12 people on Saturday and 9 on Sunday (Mother's Day), and we took out a LOT of junk. We got out about 22 garbage bags of styrofoam cups, cans, glass and plastic bottles and assorted small things, 9 tires, a 55 gallon drum, 2 cable reels, a mattress, a reel of barbed wire, many feet of plastic pipe, a gallon of used motor oil, assorted metal things and several sheets of aluminum sheathing. We estimate that we removed about 1000 pounds of junk from the river this weekend. We did not get out a washing machine, a van seat, a large cable reel, a wedged-in tire, a platform rocker, and a few rusting 55 gallon drums.
In the 5 miles or so that we paddled but did not clean, we noticed 2 water heaters, 8-10 tires, several drums, and many bags of ordinary litter.
We were not able to cleanup as much of the river as we wanted for several reasons. We overestimated the amount of river our group could cover. We underestimated the amount of junk in the river and the number of people willing to volunteer for this job.
NOTES on Cleaning the Pequest:
REMEMBER, WE DID NOT INHERIT THIS WORLD FROM OUR ANCESTORS,
WE ARE BORROWING IT FROM OUR CHILDREN.
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Last updated: 2:08 PM 22 Jun 1999