Cleaning up the Confluence!

4th Annual Confluence Trash Bash 2012

Columbia Bottom Conservation Area, Spanish Lake, MO

March 24, 2012

Rivermile 0-5 – River Stages: St Charles – 23.4 ft; Alton – 14.5; St. Louis – 19.5

Hosted by Confluence Partnership, St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, St. Louis Audubon, Arnold Stream Team 211, Grace Hill Americorps, Piasa Palisades Sierra Club and a bunch of other businesses, municipalities and organizations

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by John Ruskey and Melanie Cheney, paintings by John Ruskey

We finally got one. After three years of flooding and miserable cold/rainy/snowy weather, this year the Trash Bash landed on a glorious spring weekend. You can’t help but feeling unsettled by the mild winter and early, uniformly beautiful spring. But you also can’t help but get out and enjoy it.

Every year, we keep the option of camping somewhere down at the Confluence for this event, but cold and rain keeps putting us up in cheap hotel rooms. This time, we hooked up with our friends at Big Muddy Adventures (on an adventure that will be described later) and set up camp on the tail end of Duck Island, tucked on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River just downstream of the Confluence. After scouting our sites for the next day’s cleanup, we landed on the island only to be greeted by a beautiful rainbow.

Our Duck Island Camp. photo by John Ruskey

Our part of the Trash Bash is to take a group of volunteers out on the river in boats to clean up the Confluence itself.  Being blessed with perfect weather this time, we were able to go a little further than in Trash Bashes past, actually getting the St. Louis side of the Confluence as well as the mouth of Coldwater Creek, a major urban tributary entering the Missouri at Fort Bellefontaine Park. We were joined this year by two Army Corps of Engineers biologists Megan Kerrick & Ben McGuire and their boat.

Other sites in the Trash Bash include North Riverfront Park, sites along the Maline, Watkins and Coldwater Creeks, some areas on Chouteau Island on the Illinois side, Creve Coeur Lake Park and a massive tire dump on Fee Fee Creek.

Melanie was leading a site along Maline Creek, so she and I headed to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge where all the NW St. Louis sites were meeting. We gathered our crews together, did a safety talk then headed to our sites.

Melanie's Crew on Site 12 on the Maline. photo by Melanie Cheney

Half our our volunteers were from the Washington University Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity. Great kids from a great organization. APO chapters across the state come to help at our clean-ups, always bringing more than 20 folks out to make it happen.

We had a sizable River Relief crew, with even our buddy Mike Smith from Washington, MO, coming to help. Friends from Missouri American Water, Boeing and Biomerieux showed up and we hit the river. All in all, we had 50 volunteers at our site, hitting three four different locations.

Because we had done a really big cleanup last year, this time we focused on spots missed last fall. There was plenty of trash to be hauled out of there, and couldn’t be a more beautiful day to do it.

Volunteers roll countless tires from the floodplain. photo courtesy Arnold Stream Team 211

The best thing about the Trash Bash is that you get to see the impact made in your area, but simultaneously there are groups all over the region making a similar or even greater impact. Our friends with Arnold Stream Team 211 gathered a team of really hard workers to remove tires from the floodplain along Fee Fee Creek. Our board member Francis Baum joined in the effort. These tires are thought to have been scattered from a landfill during a past flood and have been flooded several times since, scattering the tires throughout the riparian forest. This will be a project that takes several massive efforts.

A really great lunch was served up by Confluence Partnership, and then we hit the river again to haul all that trash in. Everything was loaded in boats, which were then trailered and hauled up to the dumpster. We hauled scrap metal and tires back to the Chain of Rocks Bridge to be added to the huge piles there. Including a massive metal tank of some kind dug out of the bank at Columbia Bottom which needed about six people to move.

Trash is unloaded from the trailered boat into a dumpster. photo by Melanie Cheney

After we cleaned up the ramp, we headed out to the Confluence to drift among the swirling junction of the continent’s two longest rivers. The Missouri was cresting, and was pushing huge swirls of muddy water far out into the Mississippi. Massive flocks of cormorants streamed above as we were tossed about in the eddies. We drifted down the Mississippi side of Duck Island, viewing the eagle nest there from afar to not disturb the nesting couple there.

Eventually we ran into John Ruskey and Mark Peoples filling one of their Bell canoes with driftwood. It was their second load and they had moved our campfire down to the sandy point of Duck Island. We parked in a foamy eddy at the point and gathered for a some serious river time with a group of our favorite river lovers. Some lunch leftovers were donated to our camp and were supplemented with healthy snacks. Everyone took turns wandering the island and a driftwood bonfire drew everyone in. Ominous clouds gave way to a beautiful sunset. Cleanup organizers Natalie Johnson and Laura Cohen got ferried over for a moment of relaxation after the firestorm of 750 volunteers.

The sun sets over the Mississippi River and a forest of planted driftwood. photo by Melanie Cheney.

After nightfall, we set up a projector and screen (with a generator tucked far away behind a sandbank) and watched a film about John Ruskey’s adventures last year riding the crest of the Great Flood of 2011 through the state of Mississippi. With a backdrop of the river itself, this film festival had the venue down!

Another short film we watched was about the Circumnavigation of St. Louis. This is the expedition that the Big Muddy Adventures Crew is still doing. Big Muddy Mike Clark, Driftwood Johnny Ruskey and Mark “Rivers” Peoples, “Queen Bee” Betsy Tribble and David Hanson from Seattle were working their way up the Mississippi River in light glass canoes. Their journey had started at the confluence of the Bourbouse and Meremec Rivers, scribing a circle around the greater St. Louis metropolitan area on a highway of rivers.

After pausing at Duck Island for a day, taking a group of Trash Bashers to the island by canoe to remove trash, they would be heading around the Confluence and 70 miles up the Big Muddy. Their virtual passengers were from 7 grades of St. Ann’s of Normandy School, following their adventures online and researching their own topics related to the trip. I’d be joining them Sunday morning, just as David Hanson was getting off and heading back home.

The Circumnavigation Crew heads upstream toward the 367 bridge. photo by John Ruskey

You can read all their expedition journals, check out their amazing photographs, view John Ruskey’s watercolors and see the postings of St. Ann student at the Big Muddy Adventures Schoolhouse Blog.

Around 11 on Sunday, our River Relief crew had packed up and headed to shore. I hopped in a canoe with Mike and Betsy and up we paddled. I stayed on for two days, getting up to St. Charles. It was a powerful and humbling experience, and I hurt for days after. These guys kept going to Washington, MO, 68 miles up the Missouri. From there they would be portaging their canoe overland for 10 miles to hook up with the Bourbouse and finish their trip around St. Louis with a brisk downstream float.

John Ruskey's watercolor of the Circumnavigation (in dark blue). 

John Ruskey watercolor of a side chute on the Missouri River.

River Kids Rock the River

by Melanie Cheney

Well it started with a phone call, the River Kids were doing a week long, river-focused day camp and would love to join up with Missouri River Relief again on the Big River.  We had taken them out last year on the Mississippi, locking through a dam for the first time and worked with them on several clean-ups in years past.  They are a pretty hard-core group of kids, traveling to islands on the mighty Mississippi by canoe with our brother, Big Muddy Mike of Big Muddy Adventures, and have been doing small clean-ups on big rivers for years now.

So if that weren't enough incentive to hit the road with our boats, the River Kids have decided to host their annual party & fundraiser at the City Museum this fall in honor of Missouri River Relief's 10th Anniversary!  So on up we went, to take the kids out on a river trip for their summer day camp.

We met the crew of 20 at the Columbia Bottoms boat ramp.  As is usually the case when we travel to the confluence, the weather was less than ideal.  Winds were blowing in gusts up to 30 miles an hour.  I tied my hat on my head & recommended they do the same.  Once we got out on the river, it didn't seem so bad, we motored up the wide Missouri, then floated back down towards the Confluence of the 2 biggest rivers on this continent, the Missouri & Mississippi.

On the even wider Mississippi, we floated past big islands, enjoying the up-close views of herons & egrets, and best of all, an active eagles nest, all the while, looking for somewhere to eat lunch.  With the rivers running high this Spring, now into the Summer, there wasn't exactly any sandbars to stop at.  So we simply ate lunch in the boats, which the kids didn't seem to mind at all.  They were pretty easy going, and knew a "Big Muddy Adventure" entailed rolling with what the river handed you.   

So on down we went, past the beautiful chain of rocks bridge to our destination, Mosenthein Island.  Here along one of the biggest islands around, there was suppose to be guaranteed at least one sandy spit we could stop at & let them out to play.  Well, there was a sandy spit, but it was about the size of a one-roomed shack.  We stopped anyway, & had a fabulous time letting loose on what we called "Gilligans Island".  There were perfectly round hatched out turtle eggs all over, water soaked sand which made for enticing "quick sand", along with a gigantic red buoy the kids had fun playing on.  We took this group photo from "Gilligans Island" with the St. Louis skyline in the background as the kids literally walked on water.

Ok, it was time to get to work.  Finding a dry place to get in on the island was next to impossible.  It was super muddy with all the high water, so we just got muddy.  There was trash all over the island, we only needed to cover about a 1/4 mile stretch before we had created a large pile of bags to be loaded onto the boats.  The timing was perfect, one hour later, we were headed back for the bus.  We let the kids out at North Riverfront park and formed a "daisy chain" to get the blue bags of trash to the nearest trash receptacle.  Then cleaned up around the highly popular fishing spot before saying our farewells.  The clouds finally cleared up & the wind calmed, what a beautiful day it had turned out!

We took our now empty boats back to the island, and loaded 22 tires the kids had piled up in past clean-ups with Big Muddy Mike before they floated away in what was sure to be more high water soon, & headed back to the Confluence.

It was our brand new plate boats first clean-up, and after asking the River Kids for ideas on names, we christened the boat in the Confluence, and dubbed it the "Robust Ana Deca"  or "RAD" after some great suggestions by the river kids crew.   It literally means "Robust Anniversary Decade".  I don't know if that's what we'll call her for sure, but it sure did  have a nice ring to it on her maiden voyage!

Many thanks to the New City School's River Kids, and their teacher Ben Griffiths for allowing us to be an integral part of such an outstanding crew of young people.

Films, Friends and great River Tunes

Wild & Scenic Film Festival

The Blue Note, Columbia, MO

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011

text by Steve Schnarr 

Cabin Fever Breaks at the Blue Note
Last Wednesday, Feb. 8, was one of the coldest nights of the year. The Blue Note was downright chilly when we got there in the afternoon to set up the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. But it didn’t take long to heat up once the doors opened and warm bodies filled the old theater.

After a couple of brutal winter weeks, cabin fever was in the air in Columbia and lots of old and new friends came out for an evening of movies, inspiration and great music. It was really fun for us at Missouri River Relief, because it was the kickoff for our 10th anniversary – a chance to look back at a bunch of good work and forward to ambitious plans this year.

Films Inspiring Action Across the Country
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour is a traveling offshoot of a festival held each January in Nevada City, CA. The original event was put together by a local citizen river group to bring people together, learn about citizen action and natural adventure around the world, and be inspired to take action in their community. The South Yuba River Citizen’s League (SYRCL) loved what the festival did in their town, and decided to leverage that power across the country using local grassroots organizations as hosts.

When we realized that one of the films was the Missouri Stream Team documentary (including a piece about River Relief), we decided to host the festival in Columbia. A grant from Patagonia sealed the deal.
We spent a few months with a group of River Relief crew volunteers putting together the film list and ideas on spicing up the event. Films were selected from a pool of choices screened at the full festival. The SYRCL festival staff provided tons of great advice and resources for pulling off a quality event. Richard King, the owner of The Blue Note, offered us a full night in their historic theater for free. Everything snowballed into the set up for a perfect evening. 

We chose to show four main, longer topical films (around 25 minutes apiece) sprinkled with shorter, more creative pieces. “Big River” was a great way for us to start out. It’s all about thinking about our downstream impacts –  – something Missouri River Relief is all about. It was followed by a piece on young, innovative farmers and a look at West Virginia citizens fighting the effects of mountain-top removal coal mining on their communities (“Greenhorns” and “Burning the Future”). Shorter films included “Get Up Stand Up” (about river surfing in Wyoming), “Lady Bug Swarm” (just plain beautiful), “Garbage Angels” (a mythical animated romp through a garbage dump) and “The Majestic Plastic Bag” (a mock-umentary of the migration of a shopping bag). Click here for more about the films, and links to trailers.

Filmmaker (and River Relief founder) Jim Karpowicz

Local filmmaker Jim Karpowicz, also one of the founders of River Relief, introduced young film makers Nick Rotts and Julian Segert and their PSA on stormwater pollution in Hinkson Creek. Then he introduced his inspiring documentary about the 20 years of the Missouri Stream Team program.You can see the whole thing on You-Tube here.

We wanted the night to enlighten and inspire our friends and it really seemed to work.

A Community Effort
In addition to the hard working Blue Note staff, River Relief crew members greeted people, set up a silent auction and raffle, sold repurposed t-shirts and introduced the films. Everyone had short shifts so they could enjoy most of the night.

Ruthie Moccia & Jeanie Kuntz show off their
beautified t-shirt collection

Tons of local friends donated art, books, services and goodies to be auctioned and raffled off. River rats Barbara and Roger Giles walked off with a weekend in Rocheport, with a stay at the Katy Trail Bed & Bikefest, dinner at Abigails, some great books from Pebble Publishing and a couple bottles of Les Bourgeois wine. The Alpine Shop kicked in a cash donation and a kayak paddle.

Big Muddy Adventures, our partners in the Confluence area, put up a guided canoe float for auction. Tim Nigh was the auctioneer, and he goaded the crowd into bidding up to $450 for the trip. Diane Oerly, a longtime River Relief friend, took the top bid. (I hope I can buy a ticket on that boat trip!) Tim can be pretty persuasive, even dragging Brett Dufur (himself a Missouri River canoe guide) into the bidding.

Naked Dave Bandy at
Hartsburg Clean-up, 2008

A special treat was a visit from Allison Skare, who works in Senator Claire McCaskill’s office. The previous week, Sen. McCaskill gave a resolution on the Senate floor honoring Missouri River Relief volunteers for their 10 years of getting it done on the Big Muddy. Allison read a few pieces of the resolution, and handed a copy over to our Director, Jeff Barrow.

The whole thing was topped off with music by our dearest river rat musician friends. “Naked” Dave Bandy coordinated the music. His band Crazyfish invited a bunch of friends on stage to jam on river tunes written by local songwriters (including themselves, of course). I’ve always said that this band sounds best over the river, from a canoe floating down towards Cooper’s Landing. But they sounded righteous in the Blue Note! Then a mutant version of the Roadkill Orchestra took the stage, with “Uncle Denny” Termanian joining Dyno Penny and Karen Crane. It was like transporting the big sycamore at Cooper’s Landing right into downtown Columbia.

a weekend in the little hills

St. Charles Missouri River Clean-up

Bishop's Landing at the Lewis & Clark BoatHouse
Sept. 10-12, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Alicia Pigg, Tom Ball, Vicki Richmond, Penningtons, others?
for more on this event, see our event page:
http://www.riverrelief.org/event/st-charles-missouri-river-clean-up-2010/

As we were preparing for dinner on the banks of the Missouri River in St. Charles, a lone kayaker pulled his boat up the abandoned boat ramp by Lewis and Clark BoatHouse and started unloading gear.

It turns out, this was Tom (never caught his last name) who had started paddling at Three Forks, Montana, where the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers join to form the Missouri. He had started in May.

We invited him to dinner and to camp with us, under the shadow of the BoatHouse. The idea of a cold beer seemed like a really good one to Tom. He politely took a barrage of questions from our crew, laughed and shared stories.

And he had a funny observation. “As I was paddling downstream, all of a sudden I saw these blue bags laying on shore. At first I was kind of pissed and thought about pulling over and picking them up,” he said. “After seeing several, I started to realize this was probably part of the clean-up”.

Tom had heard about the clean-up from “Big Muddy” Mike Clark, our friend and fellow river cleaner who has introduced many hundreds of people to the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers through his Big Muddy Adventures guide service. Tom had called Mike for advice, and he suggested that if he was coming through St. Charles on Sept. 10 or 11, he ought to find the River Relief crew if he wanted to sit around a campfire with some fellow river rats and swap stories.

Those blue bags are our “trash flags”. The day before a clean-up, an early crew heads to our campspot, sets up our “Flying Nun” kitchen tent, and sends out a couple of boats with trash bags, maps and a dispatcher. The crew’s job is to find the places where we can safely drop off volunteer crews the next day. To make it easy for the clean-up boat drivers to see those spots, we flag them with a big, blue Stream Team trash bag with a rock in it tossed on shore.

The dispatcher marks all these spots on a map with descriptions of how many people the spot can take, any special notes on finding the trash and what tools the crews will probably need. She divies the river reaches up into sections that can take several boatloads of volunteers and makes an individual map for each boat driver on the clean-up. This is a simple way to communicate to the boat drivers where to take volunteers. Ideally we cover 10 miles of river at a big clean-up – five miles up, five miles down.

Even though he was exhausted from his months of river travel, Tom fit right in with the crew the next day. The only way things work at an event like this is if the volunteer crew is proactive in seeing what needs to be done and getting it done. Tom was right there, hopping in wherever the action was. An instant crewmember.

This brings me to our crew. Missouri River Relief has a staff of three full-timers and two part-timers. Everyone else is a volunteer. Essentially what staff does is to organize a framework where our volunteer crew can step out of their busy lives and have a fun and productive weekend by making these events happen.

Without this base of unreasonably dedicated volunteers, nothing would get done. They give many, many weekends – and often Thursdays and Fridays – plus countless evenings and free time, to keep the machine rolling. They operate our boats, keep them maintained and working, and train new operators on safe and efficient river piloting. They plan camp menus and prepare amazing food for the crew. They offer ideas on improving our systems and then implement them. The degree of passion and care they give to even the smallest details is kind of stunning. Our biggest fear is burnout, so we try to keep things interesting and fun, and to always bring new people into the crew so the burden doesn’t fall on too few old-timers. It’s a tough balance, but so far it’s worked.

I have no idea how this thing keeps working – it seems like magic. What makes it tough to define is that the magic is held within many different, very special people. But it seems that the glue holding it together is a love for the river, a willingness to work hard and selflessly, and a love for each other.

People certainly ask me, “How do I get one of those crew shirts?” The only way I know to answer is to describe what River Relief crew does – travel all over the watershed doing the behind the scenes work that makes an event run smooth. Then I say, “It’s pretty much a personal decision. You decide that at this time in your life, you want to be part of the River Relief crew. And you email me and get on the crew list and when you can help, you come help.”

In St. Charles, and also the bigger Confluence area, we’ve been doing clean-ups since 2002. There’s a tribe of folks that always shows up for clean-ups in the area, and they form the base of our St. Lou crew. I don’t really know if these folks met through our events, around our campfires, or if they knew each other before because of their river-obsessed ways.

There’s Jim Denner, the anatomy teacher from Lindbergh High School. Every time we’re anywhere close, he brings 35 to 50 students – most of which have never been on the Missouri River before. This year there were two events close to St. Louis – in Washington in April and St. Charles this Sept. He brought kids to both. In Washington, the kids were in a hurry to get out of there after a morning of hard work, because that was their Prom Day…!

Tom Ball – a lifelong river educator and stream defender. He shows up when he can and leaves when he has to. From safety talk to tire wrangling to renditions of Neil Young around the campfire, it would be a sad clean-up if Tom didn’t show up. This time, he took the Fort Zumwalt Trashinators out on the river and showed 'em how it's done. That's him in the front there with the orange Americorps lifejacket.


Mighty 211 – this crew is Stream Team #211 from the Meremec River at Arnold. In St. Charles this year, Bernie Arnold and Laurie Fauretti both came to help. Bernie brought his tire trailer, worked the lifejacket pile then hopped on the river to haul in garbage. After working registration into shape, Laurie got lunch going then did the afternoon trash haul. At 211 clean-ups she usually helps organize the lunches and was glad for the chance to leave the food scene and hit the river. Boy do I know that feeling… going to someone else’s event and getting to do the actual work.

Craig Holt – Craig started showing up to River Relief clean-ups about five years ago. He’d usually come a day early, get his own camp set up, then be there to help every step of the way. I remember last time we had a big event at Columbia Bottoms and he showed up with a pot of stew when we arrived with no dinner plans. This time, Craig couldn’t get there ‘til Saturday morning. We actually had a ceremony to conjure up Craig the night before.

Craig on the left and Rod on the right load up Greg Dennigmann's bucket with river trash.
photo by Alicia Pigg.

Big Muddy Adventures – these guys are our true partners in the Confluence area. They are their own river clean-up crew, by canoe only. Mike Clark and Betsy Tribble show up with their Clipper Canoe (seats 12) and hit the river with big smiles whether they have a crew or not. Then proceed to fill that boat with trash on their way downstream. Betsy and Mike also take a group of students called the River Kids out in canoes once a month to clean up and experience the two mightiest rivers in the country: the Missouri and Mississippi.

This is the BMA crew at the Washington Clean-up in April. photo by one of those Penningtons

Lewis and Clark Boathouse – these folks are a fellow non-profit with a mission similar to ours. They bring people to the river, but they are focused on exposing folks to the amazing history we share tied in with this valley. This year, they let us camp in their front yard (“behind the boathouse”) next to the river. An amazing beach with a young riparian willow forest managed by the local Master Naturalists, some great fishing spots and a heirloom vegetable, herb and native plant garden. Behind us, the massive boat house and nature center was the dry dock for three gorgeous, handmade replicas of the fleet the Corps of Discovery took up the Missouri River in 1804. These boats made the same journey in 2004.

Francis Baum – this guy started his own environmental organization of fellow Boeing workers. BEEP – Boeing Employees for Environemental Protection. He travels across the state to help with River Relief events, and this time he took on the dispatch position – scouting the trash on Friday then sending folks out there to pick it up on Saturday morning. He was a little bummed this year that “Talk Like a Pirate Day” landed on the day after the clean-up….

Many other friends and familiar faces joined us on the riverfront that day. Along with over 250 other state-wide volunteers picking up trash, sorting out recyclables, piloting (and fixing) boats, teaching and learning, serving and being served, this group of local folks made this event happen.

Although everyone felt tired at the end of the day, no one felt broken. In fact, after a dinner graciously donated by Trailhead Brewing across the street and gathered around a campfire sharing stories, we all felt a little healed. I’m pretty sure we healed each other, and the river healed us all.

Race to Dome Quick Links

Race to the Dome

Hartsburg to Jeff City
July 3, 2010

Here's a few great links from the Race to the Dome:

Race to the Dome Results

Race to the Dome website

Race to the Dome Facebook

Columbia Tribune Article (and slideshow)

Great Blog from Racer Jessica Machetta

Missouri River Relief race page

Race photos

Race blogs

Fast, Fun & Floody

Race to the Dome

Hartsburg to Jeff City
July 3, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Dave "the River Slave" Marner, Diana Dexter and Caanan Cowles

Sometimes you finish an event, look around at all the smiling people and realize: this is the first year of big deal.

That’s how it felt for me at the end of the Race to the Dome. People were glowing, and you could see that this thing could be big.

66 boats went in the water. Amazing for the first year! But ever since the MR340 took off, it’s seemed like the growth of paddling recreation on the Missouri River has not hit its limit.

A great diverse crowd showed up at Hartsburg Landing. Some fancy boats were already in the water when I showed up: some folks training for the 340 had put in upstream earlier and showed up for the race by water. Other trainees were planning on heading down to Hermann after the race finish.

There were aluminum canoes borrowed from Jeff City Parks – some folks didn’t have their own boat and had never been on the river. In my opinion, a race like this is a perfect time for people to get their “riverlegs”. You’ve got safety boats in the water in case something goes wrong. You’ve got other paddlers to help you find the safe, fast water. You’ve got lunch waiting for you at the end.

Because of the high water, racers were separated into heats so there was plenty of room in the eddy at the bottom of the ramp. All race heats were launched without issue (except the sucking mud on the ramp left by the recent flooding). It just made things really complicated for timekeeping!

Several spectacles were on hand as well. Big Muddy Adventures showed up with John Ruskey’s handmade Junebug canoe, taking out a group of folks for a gentle paddle downstream for a donation to River Relief. At the Noren ramp, the MR340 Dragon Boat, carrying 20 paddlers (!) jammed up the ramp for a while taking off. What a sight!


Only a couple of boats spilled. One guy self-rescued right in the middle of the river. Another bunch swamped and lost their paddles. Luckily, we had an extra kayak paddle in our safety boat and they could get on their way.

One of our safety boats was able to take a couple of our most dedicated sponsors, Pat Jones and Jamie Coe, out on the river. What a great time to get out there and see all these folks out enjoying the river.

Jeff City’s own Matt Green and Kevin Schwarz of the “Aquaholics” took men’s tandem kayak and were the overall winners (1 hour 10 minutes!!!!). Our neighbor, Jodi Pffeferkorn and her partner Charlie Lockwood (“Pfefferwood”) were the first back to the ramp, winning the mixed tandem class. They’ve been training for the 340 as of late and are looking good! See them at the 340, too. Past 340 winner Bryan Hopkins (“Lucky 13”) took the men’s solo kayak race by a landslide (mudslide?). Carp Target Grannies from Columbia floated in from upstream and ended up ruling women’s tandem. I’ll post other winners as I get them.

Plus, we had several River Reliefers in the race. Janet Moreland (the first person to sign up for the race – “Easy Rider”) took silver in solo female kayak, followed by Allison Kellenberger (“Mother of Pearl”) in her first race. Melanie Cheney and Liz Doubet took second in their class (“Muddy Bottom Gumbo Gals”). David Lackey ("Water Lily") took third place in men's solo kayak! We were all so proud!

Complete results are posted on the Race to the Dome website.

After we finished up cleaning up after the race, several of us loaded up Big Muddy Mike’s canoe and headed upstream to our high sandbank camp. Music, campfire, veggie packs, lots of swimming, sunset boat ride. That’s the way to celebrate independence!

A really cool guy thought up a really cool race...

Race to the Dome
Hartsburg to Jeff City, MO
July 3, 2010

Text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Caanan Cowles & Diana Dexter

This was the inaugural year for a really good idea. A 16-mile paddle race ending across the river from the state capital: Jefferson City on Independence Day weekend. Pulling off even such a simple idea is not quite as easy as you’d think. But when you start with a great idea hatched by a tenacious, well-connected dude with gobs of skills – it looks easy!

For me it all started with a phone call. Patrick Lynn from Jefferson City had hoped to paddle in our Flying Carp race, which ended up (perhaps unwisely!) getting cancelled due to high water and drift in the river. But after the cancellation, he rang us up and said he wanted to organize a race for charity from Hartsburg to Jeff City. And he wanted us to be the charity!

We had recently done a clean-up at Noren Access in Jefferson City, and were starting to develop a great set of friends there. One great couple is Andy and Leisha Neidert – who started bringing their boat to clean-ups in the area and diving in. A real couple of river rats, they live on the bluff upstream of Jeff City, overlooking the river. Patrick is friends with Andy too, so Andy agreed to help and it was on.

As the day approached, our friends at MRCN had to cancel their race due to major flooding in Glasgow, and the river looked like it was going to be high all summer. But then it stopped raining. The week before the race, it was becoming clear that we might be able to pull this off. The projection of 2 feet below flood stage held.

Patrick worked this race with dogged dedication. Hopefully next year this thing will grow enough to pay the dude – but he insisted on taking this on as a volunteer this year. He coordinated everything himself, from food for racers to corporate sponsorship; from organizing race classes to staggering heats; from race publicity to making sure there were water bottles. When something didn’t pan out, he didn’t blink – on to plan b.

He started advertising the race months before – the first news story was back in April. He did Twitter, he did Facebook. He got cool stickers made. If we offered half-baked ideas from our experience, he’d run with it and make it happen.

For us at Missouri River Relief, nothing could have been easier than working with Patrick Lynn on this race.

Where Patrick really shined was the day of the race. He worked his butt off all day long, conducting the race start, answering never-ending questions and solving problems on the fly. Watching his persistence as he recalculated times (an admitted history major) it was clear he was finally going to sleep great that night.

Beyond his unbelievable generosity to our organization and cause, his most admirable quality was among the chaos of hundreds of people dragging boats through the Hartsburg lot or waiting for their lunch at Noren, Patrick would answer your questions with a smile and real appreciation.

Oh, and he’s great with a soundbite: “I grew up near the river and didn’t really start getting out and enjoying it until a few years ago,” he said. “It’s a great resource here in Jefferson City and needs to be utilized more.” Bingo…

Patrick, you’re a truly kind soul, and we can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for us and for our mission of connecting people to this amazing river by getting out on her.

But he’s definitely not the only one to thank for making this race happen. The list is actually pretty long:

Sponsors –
The Old Brickhouse Deli – donated and served lunches to the racers.
Central Bank
Centurylink
Husch Blackwell Sanders
Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau

Partners -
Alpine Shop – donated lip balm for racers
Big Muddy Adventures – donated proceeds from a ride in the 22-foot wooden Junebug canoe
Dexter crew – showed up, helped patrol the race and took gobs of great photos.
Jefferson City Parks and Recs – donated canoe and paddle rental.
Joe Wilson – the host with the most
Lafarge-Neidert – graphic design
Lynn Family - registration
Mid-Missouri Amateur Radio Club – Set up stations along the route (some in boats, some biked out the Katy Trail, some on decks of friends over looking the river) and kept all stations in communication.
Missouri American Water – donated gift bags
Neidert family – safety boat – and everything that needed doing
Schnucks – donated gift bags & drinks
St. James Winery – prize wine!
And without a doubt the Missouri River Relief crew solid as a rock!

Stories from Washington

Washington River Festival and Missouri River Clean-up

Rennick Riverfront Park, Washington, MO
April 17, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Vicki Richmond, Melanie Cheney, Tom Ball

(for more photos, stories, links etc, see our Washington event webpage. )

Man, did we have a good time in Washington.

In fact, there was so much going on, most of us only got a glimpse at a few pieces of the whole. Here’s a few stories that happened that people have passed along to me.

Drift Piles and Willow Thickets and Box Dikes
It’s been several years of high water along the Lower Missouri River. Much of the trash along the river has been pushed up high in the floodplain. The Washington reach of the river is really productive agricultural land with little public land. So a lot of the trash volunteers recovered was from piles of driftwood pushed together by flooding eddies.

The river levels had dropped a lot in the previous week, as low as it’s been in months. The low willow thickets that gather trash were actually locked behind exposed rock dikes that had been underwater just a week before. We call these “box dikes” because the rock walls actually box the areas off from our clumsy motorboats. This all meant a lot of work for the volunteers that were bagging up trash and hauling it to where our trash boats could pick them up. Or rolling refrigerators or tires. These were a tough bunch of volunteers!

The Augusta Bottoms Scour Hole
Last time we went to Washington in 2008, a group of Augusta Bottoms residents pointed out some trash in the series of “blew holes” along August Bottoms Rd. Unfortunately, our clean-up that day was cancelled because of a flooding Missouri River and we didn’t have enough volunteers to pull it off.

This time, Scot Heidbrink and Bernie Arnold led a team of Kohl’s employees and locals to tackle the site. Once they started, they found they couldn’t stop. What looked like some recent dumping turned out to be about 25 tires and two trailer-loads of junk illegally dumped along the road.

This was one of several scour holes dug out in the 1993 and 1995 floods. Still popular fishing holes, they are home to migrating flocks of waterfowl and are crammed with turtles. It felt good to get them cleaned out! Hopefully we can come back when the water is really low!

Colter’s Clean-up by Canoe
The Wyman Center contacted us several months ago. Jason Rose, the Wyman Program Manager, was entering the Missouri River 340, a canoe race we are involved in, and checked out our website. He was intrigued and offered the Wyman’s canoe fleet for a clean-up in the area. We chose the Washington clean-up for our trial run.

The group met at the Washington ramp early and headed up to Colter’s Landing, where the Wyman Fleet was waiting. Big Muddy Adventures’ Betsy Tribble and Mike Clark arrived with the Clipper Canoe – a massive 10-person canoe just begging to haul trash. Everyone headed downstream on the Boeff Creek gathering trash as they went. The coolest thing they found wouldn’t fit in a canoe - our trash boat had to pick it up later: a really nice picnic table buried in a sandbank. We took it to our riverside cabin the next day!

The mouth was the first stop, and several trashy spots along the way. Luckily, the Washington Boat Club Commodore Fred Hartbank and a couple of his buddies grabbed lunches and headed up to meet the paddlers for lunch around 1 p.m.. Then the canoe clean-up crew had the energy to finish ‘er off!

River Celebration!
Last time we attempted a clean-up in Washington, Mike Smith volunteered to help coordinate it. Then his good friend, Gloria Attoun Bauermeister offered to organize a river festival in conjunction with the clean-up. That was 2008…the clean-up ended up flooded out, but the festival went on as planned.

This year it was even bigger and better. With music from local river lovers, educational booths on a wide variety of river and nature-related topics, art and good food – it was a true celebration of the river that remains the center of life in Washington.

The World Bird Sanctuary kicked it all off with their popular display of rehabilitated raptors from around the world. The whole festival wrapped up with an old-timey dance, complete with a dance caller. In the meantime, a lot of families got to get involved in hands-on art projects, a bird walk with Bill Davit, and a whole lot of learning about local organizations dedicated to history, restoration, care of our resources and more.

Kohl’s and Washington Middle School
Two of our largest groups were from the Washington Kohl’s store and the Washington Middle School Environmental Club. Because of a great national program through Kohl’s, the two groups teamed up to work both on the river and the Augusta Bottoms site.
The bonus: Kohl’s will be donating $1,500 to the Environmental Club! According to Club faculty sponsor Michael Batsie, the club will use the funds to purchase new recycling bins for the school, as well as t-shirts and native plant training for the environmental club. An absolute win-win for everyone!

Nona
We were pleased that our crew was invited back to Michael and Gloria’s little piece of paradise in the Augusta Bottoms. The former site of a little railroad town called Nona, the old general store is now the studio and gallery for Michael Bauermeister’s amazing wooden sculptures. We set up our kitchen under the awning, camped in the yard around and enjoyed the beautiful spring evening after the clean-up. Many friends from Washington, Augusta and St. Louis joined us for an evening campfire and “pass the feather”, where everyone told a story about how the day went for them.

Many thanks to the many cooks who kept us fed all weekend. It was truly a group effort!

We were kept company all weekend by several barred owls. Josh got this picture of one of them!

2009 Missouri River Relief Trash Totals!!!

From 15 Total Clean-ups involving 2,061 Volunteers, we picked up 57 Tons of Trash!

Here's a partial list of what we plucked out of the Missouri River & her tribs:
926 Bags of Trash (mostly plastic bottles)


370 Bags of Recyclables (plastic & aluminum recycled in communities that would take them)
636 Tires
24 32-gallon trash cans of Broken Glass
42 Chunks o Styrofoam
29 – 5 gallon plastic Buckets, 2 with Tar
9 – 5 gallon metal Buckets
13 – 55 gallon Metal Drums
12 – 55 gallon Plastic Barrel
1 – 300 gallon Diesel Tank

Appliances & Furniture: 115


2 Hot Tubs
3 Couches
8 Hot Water Heaters
5 Freezers
11 Refrigerators
3 Dryers
13 Washing Machines
1 Dishwasher
3 Stoves
9 Propane Tanks
4 Bed Frames
3 Bed Rails
4 Mattresses
1 Head Board
16 Box Springs
26 Chairs & Recliners
2 Folding Tables
1 Table Top

Construction Materials: 165


1 Electric Switch
6 pieces of Electric Wire
15 large metal Plates & Bolts
1 Shovel Spade
2 Road Cones
1 Hand Saw
80 ft of 1” Poly Tubing
10 1-gallon Paint/Varnish Cans
10 ft of Plastic Piping
1 lot Fence Wire
3 Toilets
1 Toilet Float
Several hundred pounds of Roof Shingles
2 Kitchen Sinks
1 Cabinet
3 Window Frames
1 piece of Aluminum Ladder
8 pieces of Carpet
1 Plastic Shelf
1 Electric Panel Box
1 Corner Cabinet
1 big Window with glass in it
1 piece of Corrugated Roof
1 – 9 ft Conduit Drainage Pipe
8 rolls of Fencing
2 Air Tank Compressors
2 huge Culverts
1 Counter Top

Household Items: 596


1 box full of household chemicals
393 Balls including 1 muddy Bowling Ball still in its bag
3 Microwaves
1 Microwave Cart
5 TVs
1 VCR
1 Water Jug
3 Grill Racks
3 Storage Tubs
1 Laundry Hamper
1 Baby Play Pen
1 Welcome Mat
1 Home Depot “green” bag
2 pieces of Carpet Padding
1 piece of Astroturf
2 Sleds
2 pairs of Sunglasses
2 liter Glass Soda Bottle
1 Baby Stroller
1 Pan
1 Tea Cup
2 Teapots
4 Tennis Shoes
5 Croc sandals
3 Boots
27 Flip Flops
23 Lightbulbs
1 My Little Pony Lunch Box
10 feet of Garden Hose
1 Ironing Board
1 Typewriter
1 Fire Extinguisher
13 Mason Canning Jars
2 Push Lawnmowers
8 Fishing Poles
8 Tarps
2 Tents
1 Doll w/out a head
1 twin size Bed Foam
1 Quilt
1 green Tote Box
1 Pet Carrier
1 Tricycle
1 mangled Bicycle
2 bicycle helmets
1 Bicycle Seat
1 cast iron Pot
1 metal Love Seat Swing
1 Oxygen Tank
1 Lamp
1 Snoopy Soap Dish
2 sections of a toy Train Track
1 headless Raccoon Statue
2 Wash Tubs
14 Plant Tray’s
1 Giant Bubble Wand
1wooden Cardinal Lawn Ornament
1 Dog Crate
1 Bird House
1 Bottle of Brut Cologne
3 Baby Bottles
1 Child’s Toilet Seat
1 foam Bert from Sesame Street
1 Sewing Machine
1 mini Ironing Board
1 Baseball Glove
1 toy Cash Register
1 soggy book titled “Shaping History”
The letter “C”
1 decorative Perfume Bottle
1 doggie door
1 toy metal Dump Truck
1 See Saw
1 antique French Fry Cutter
Stationary

Metal: 966.5


334 Pieces of Scrap Metal
397 ft of Cable Wire
30 corrugated Metal Panels
160 ft. of misc. Metal Piping
Several rolls of Barbed Wire
1 Hog Waterer
2” Copper Fitting (Steam)
1 Brush Hog Deck
1 cast iron Furnace Grate
8 welded wire Hog Panels
4 Cow Panels
1 boat full of assorted Wire & Fencing
8 pieces of roofing Sheet Metal
½ of a Pasture Gate
1 Water Tank
1 railroad car Hand Brake Actuator
6 pieces of Rebar
2 8X10 sheets of Plate Metal
6 pieces of Metal Decking
1 Metal Fence with wood posts
3 pieces of Chain Link Fence

Automotive Parts & Pieces: 50.5


2 car Wheels
1 railroad Car Spring
1 Jeep Tail Gate
2 Gas Tanks
1 John Deere Tractor cover
1 Car Door
4 Car Bumpers
1 truck Mud Flap
7 Headlights
2 Trailer Lights
1 truck Bed Liner
2 Antifreeze Jugs
1 Car Radio
1 large Car Battery
1 metal Gas Can
1 old metal Radio Transmitter
1Car Fender
1 massive Brake Drum
½ of a car Front End-Grill & Headlight
1 Alternator
1 Crank Shaft
1 Car Seat Springs
2 Tail Pipes
1 Drive Shaft
1 Tractor Gear Box
1 Air Filter for tractor
4 Hub Cap’s
1 Fender from Antique Truck
1 ancient Boat Motor
1 Sideview Mirror
1 Rearview Mirror
1 Auto Grill
1 1966 Iowa Licence Plate
1 1948 blue Buick Roadmaster Hood

Signs: 8


1 “No Wake” sign
1 Union Pacific Railroad sign
1 MO 98 Road Sign
1 shot-up Sign that reads: “$50 Reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of any person or persons found willfully mutilating or destroying this sign. The O.J. Gude Co. NY”
1 Street Sign that said “Stoney Brook Rd” on one side, and “Stoner” on the other side
3 Street Signs

Miscellaneous: 53


3 Messages in a Bottle
18 Coolers
6 Buoys
1 very ugly Old Woman Rubber Mask
1 Lock Pick Set
1 Park Bench
1 – 14 ft Fiberglass Boat
2 pieces of Barge Rope
1 Camp Stove
1 Shopping Cart
1 Woman’s Purse found – no I.D.
1 Newspaper Dispenser
1 LONG plastic pole with a huge fishing hook on the end (a gaff)
1 ceramic Elephant Eye
1 Duck Decoy
1 Duck Decoy Head
1 Goose Decoy Head
1 Door to a Duck Blind
1 Pogo Stick
1 Bowling Pin
1 full Can of Beer-Miller Lite
1 minnow Fishing Lure
2Computer Monitors
1 Bridge Decking
1 small U.S. Flag
1 Tin of wet Snuff
1 polished Native Copper Stone from Santa Rita, NM