Au Sable River Cleanup

September, 2009

The Challenge Chapter of Trout Unlimited assisted with the Au Sable River Cleanup in the Holy Water section of the Au Sable. Chapter members picked up trash and other debris left in the river over the summer season. The Chapter was assigned the stretch from Keystone Landing to the Whirlpool Road landing. Our members scoured the stream bottom, the log jams, and the banks and gleaned a significant amount of trash.

Two of our members participated in the Upper Au Sable Water Quality Monitoring Project supported by MiCorps.

Additionally, two of our members posted signs on the two Trout Unlimited properties on the Holy Water. The Guide's Rest property is posted as "No Deer Hunting" and the Knight Property (Lower TU) near Wakeley Bridge is posted as "No Rifle Hunting". This is in accordance with the deed by TU to the State of Michigan for public use of the property.

Many thanks to Robert Sparks for the great photography.
The Challenge Chapter group stayed at the historic Rayburn Lodge on the Holy Water
A record-setting group showed up at Gates Lodge for this year's cleanup
Rusty Gates receives the Riverkeeper Award from Anglers of the Au Sable
Greg Baughman picks up trash while Tony Greening shows him which way is downstream
Bill Womack, Jim Zyla, Greg Baughman, Tony Greening
Gordon Baughman and Penni Sawyer
Greg Baughman ready to stab a passing beer can
Julio Mazzoli (why is his bag empty?)
The group is accumulating quite a load of trash
The final result
Au Sable guides and volunteers provided their boats to be used to pick up the bags filled by volunteers
The Challenge Chapter project group
Front Row: Greg Baughman, Maureen Michaels Shoup, Gordon Baughman
Back Row: John Shoup, Jim Zyla, Robert Sparks, Russ Holmes, Tony Greening, Doug Shore
Not Shown: Jon Griffin, Penni Sawyer, Julio Mazzoli, Bill Womack