On Saturday, May 11, 2013, the "usual suspects" gathered for RiverSweep 2013. Because of the past years of work, the upper reaches of West Creek are improving. Also, because over 200 high school students assembled to work on the general condition of the creek, NEOCHMM was assigned a special project.{phocagallery view=category|categoryid=52|imageid=355}
To kick off that special project, Patrick Arch, the enthusiastic Maintenance Manager of the Metroparks, West Creek Reservation, gave NEOCHMM members a pep talk. Pat had good reason to be excited because the Conservation Education Center, Pavilion and Maintenance Facility were getting their final touches. The grass had been planted and was sprouting through the straw. The green roof on the Education Center was, well, looking very green ! {phocagallery view=switchimage|basicimageid=337|switchheight=480|switchwidth=640|switchfixedsize=0}
NEOCHMM's mission was to spruce up the area ahead of the anticipated June 21st grand opening.
No problem !
Herb Mausser declared that he was wearing the same bandanna for this RiverSweep that he wore for every consecutive RiverSweep since 2007. (The deer could smell that and were already headed south.) Because the area was already looking pretty good, Ken Doyle remarked that Herb's record of finding and removing a shopping cart during each RiverSweep, appeared to be in serious jeopardy. Elise Allen announced that she was jettisoning her backpack this year. Instead, she brought along other excess baggage; that is, her husband Bruce, to help out. (Elise still hasn't realized that in 2011, we filled her backpack with rocks and the "lucky nickel." We found that lucky nickel during the 2009 RiverSweep of Treadway Park in Old Brooklyn.)
Serious Obstacles—Slim pickins'
So off went the NEOCHMM chain gang. We concentrated our efforts along Ridgewood and Broadview Road. We ran into many obstacles. We got a lot of looks and honks from passing cars, even though we were not wearing the stripes of the Cuyahoga County Sherriff. We picked some construction debris, plastic bottles, plastic wrapping and a few beer cans. All considered, not much of anything ! With his bag only have full, Ken Doyle knew it was time to turn around and head back when he saw a car with the bumper sticker "Soccer Mom." This was definitely a bad omen. Then Scott Williams found a package of unused condoms, which explains why the deer population has exploded in the Reservation. (Here we thought it was caused by Global Warming.)
Off the Reservation
After we regrouped at the pavilion, we embarked upon a different strategy. We decided to police the hiking trails and bridges. We went deep into the woods and the group got separated. Mark Baumgardner, Scott Williams and Herb Mausser climbed a steep hill and only found a few beer cans and one empty bottle of MD 2020. At the top of the hill was the new digital broadcast tower of WKYC-TV and also WVIZ-TV (Public Television in Cleveland). Upon catching our breath, Mark suggested that since Scott was NEOCHMM President, that Scott should exercise his leadership capacity. That is, he should climb the tower and scout out a shopping cart for Herb to pick-up, so Herb could keep his streak alive. Scott didn't think much of the idea. Scott said as President, he would delegate that task to Elise, as Elise was a big supporter of Public Television. Well, Elsie did not show and eventually Mark had to use his smart phone and Google Earth to find out that the party was actually off West Creek Reservation.
The party wound its way down the hill and head east. At that point, we ran into Erik Shamberger ! Erik was collecting bits of old style heavy glass, like the bottom of old beer mugs and beer bottles. (Apparently people in Parma like their beer served in glass.) Elsie and Bruce were also in the area and found some old style, heavy aluminum cans with pull rings, the type that were outlawed in the mid 1960's ! (We speculated that Jimmy Buffet and some of the bars adjoining the reservation donated their old pop tops and glassware, to the ravines, in the 1960's.)
The Take
Eventually, we reconvened at the Pavilion for Pizza and refreshments. We also got a sneak peek at the new facilities. The photos speak a thousand words. Alas, Herb did not find a shopping cart. When we did return south, we saw that the main group did find a few carts, but not that many! All things considered, NEOCHMM did not collect a lot of litter and the main group did not either. This is a sign of progress. Maybe the "lucky nickel" is having an effect and Herb's record was meant to be broken. While there is more work to do over time, the new facilities in Reservation will hopefully be used to educate the community for years to come. That education will include the value of green space; respect for riparian corridors and wetlands, in one the most densely populated, inner ring suburbs, in the State of Ohio.
