Stewards of the White Oak River Basin

See previous posting for April 19 meeting. This speech was not delivered then. It is now on the agenda for May 3, 2004 and will be delivered then. We hope this will lead to another giant step forward to curtail all littering. Elmer

April 30, 2004

If you want to read and see the pics with this article written by Cpl. Jessica L. Kent in Windsock go to this link and click three times on the right arrow to go to the third page.

http://www.thewindsockonline.com Elmer

We did good last Wednesday. So much so we received 90 man hours of "in kind" credit toward the Grant Fund for Jones County.

We will repeat the the same procedure this Wednesday. We will meet at the campground at 9:00 AM. More Jon type boats and chain saws are most welcome. The public is invited to join us in this effort. This camp ground is the White Oak River Campgroud on Route 17 between Maysville and Belgrade on the WhiteOak River.

At this time we cannot know what the river levels will be. We did it at 4 inches. If the river level drops there will be more logs that need attention. We will plan our attack for the day when we meet. We plan to quit at 3:00.

Since this is the same day as Crystal Coast Canoe and Kayak Club meets, those of you from out of town are welcome to come to my house for a shower and we can have another party of Chinese food before the meeting. Elmer

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Elmer, The White Oak River Trashman
Stewards of the White Oak River Basin
Please visit: www.whiteoakstewards.org 910-389-4588
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We meet at the Wildlife Ramp in Cedar Point on Route 24 at 9:00 for pictures of the group.Other pics will be taken on the island.

The followig e-mail was sent out April 1st. It is May 1st this Saturday and this clean up is still a go. IWLA is participating and 12 girl scouts are joining us.

Dudley's Marina will take people with no boats over to help us clean up. Go there after the picture taking if you are participating without a boat.

It took us three or four days to clean it up in 2002. Hope to do it all Saturday.

2004-05-01, Sharks Tooth Island on The White Oak River and The Intra Coastal Waterway. This is right across from The Wildlife Ramp on Route 24 in Cedar Point Point where the White Oak flows through and along with the Intra Coastal Waterway by Swansboro and Cedar Point. We cleaned up the entire island here last year and the year before.

This year we will have Jason McGarvey, Editor, Outdoor America, Izaak Walton League of America and Ray Clark, Photographer and Art Director with us to write up the story with pictures.

They would like to have lots of children in the pictures and welcome the public to come to help us. Maybe we can clean up this one island on this day alone this way, this year. What we may find is totally unknown at this time.

We need families to join us with canoes and kayaks and motorboats. We will launch between 9:30 and 10:00 and leave by 3:00 and hopefully leave this very popular area clean for our tourists this season.

Bring your own lunch. Plan to get your feet wet. Use sun tan lotion and we don't anticipate bugs, but who knows?

If the ramp is crowded when you get there you can launch at the foot of North Front Street in Swansboro at Bicentenial Park. If no parking available, you can use the new red brick parking lot with pervious paving at the top of the hill across from Frist Citizens.
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Elmer, The White Oak River Trashman
Stewards of the White Oak River Basin
Please visit: www.whiteoakstewards.org 910-389-4588
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2004-04-28, White Oak River Opening Canoe Trail for "in kind" credit toward Grant.

Here are three pics. I,m sure some of you have better ones. Send them in and we will post them.

M 13

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 12

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 11

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 10

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 9

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 8

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 7

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 6

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 5

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 4

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 3

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks 2

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks

Marie's Pics-Shacleford Banks

This Wednesday we will make our first run on the White Oak River and hope that it will count as "in kind" contribution toward the opening of a canoe trail per the conditons of the grant.

Bring loppers and hand saws if you have them. We will pick up all man made trash as usual too.

The purpose is to remove all minor blockages of blown down trees so the professionals will not have to spend their time on them. This should help make the grant money go further.

We meet Wednesday at 9:00 AM at the White Oak Family Camp Ground on The White Oak River between Belgrade and Maysville at Route 17 bridge. We should be off the river by 3:00.

We invite everyone who is interested in helping us to open this canoe trail to join us. Elmer

Shackleford Banks, a part of Cape Lookout National Seashore Park

Ranger Dave is very pleased with what we accomplished during our clean up. He is very appreciative of our efforts and thanks the Marines and Sailors from Marine Corp Air Station Cherry Point, and The Stewards of the White Oak River Basin and the others who participated.

Unfortunately, Ranger Dave is still out there working picking up the trash you can see on our web site (by Marie Justen) and getting it to the mainland for disposal.

Ranger Dave’s full title is Resource Education Park Ranger. That is his job. Yet, here he is spending all this time picking up trash. Why?

Because, we, the public are so careless and indifferent toward litter. We throw it off our boats or carelessly let it blow off. We picnic or camp and leave our trash behind. This is no way to treat our very own National Park.

We must stop this very bad habit. All it takes is for everyone to stop littering. This is the very simple answer. Just don’t do it.

Next year we would like to use private motor boats to take us over and bring us back with the trash. This way Ranger Dave can do his job and not have to play “Trashman”.

Any and all private power boat owners who would like to participate next year, or maybe in the fall, let us know now. We will contact you later when the time comes. Elmer

Three stalwarts were there every day. Here is their story in pictures by Marie Justen. They were Ranger Dave, Marie Justen and Gary Scruggs.

At this writing I do not have the names of the others. I do have the e-mail addresses and am writing each one personally for making our National Sea Shore Park a better palce for our visitors to enjoy. This is our Yosemite!

I hope next year we can arrange an entirely volunteer group to remove all litter and trash from our "Yosemite" so our visitors can see the true beauty of our very own National Seashore Park without any trace of man made litter and trash.

We can do this for Ranger Dave. All we have to do is to stop littering, if no one litters, there will not be any litter. What a wonderful, beautiful America that
would be.

Ranger Dave has a lot more important thngs to do than to pick up our trash!
Let's let him do his job. That is what we are paying him to do. Let's pick up our own trash! Elmer










































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-----Original Message-----
From:   Gibson Maj Sean D 
Sent:   Thursday, April 22, 2004 6:00 PM
To:     Hospital; Hospital PAO; Lt Skorey / Hospital ; MCAS All Hands; NADEP; Wing All Hands
Subject:        Volunteers Needed - Beach Cleanup

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

The Cape Lookout National Seashore Park Service and Stewards of the White Oak River Basin request volunteers to help clean Shackelford Banks, a 13-mile stretch of land that is home to a number of wild horses.

Volunteers are needed Saturday, April 24, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., to pick up litter caused by storms and visitors to the island.  Those interested in keeping Shackelford Banks beautiful are asked to meet at the Local Yokel ferry service at Harkers Island for a free ride to the island. 

Trash bags will be supplied, and volunteers are encouraged to bring their lunch, protective gloves, sunscreen and bug spray.

Families are welcome to visit the island not only to help pick up trash, but also to see the wild mustangs and scenic views offered at Shackelford Banks.

The Marines who volunteered April 17 & 18 made a great deal of progress, and their assistance is appreciated.  Please note that the clean-up scheduled on Sunday is cancelled due to forecasted storms in the area.

For more information, contact Dave Carney at (252) 728-2250 ext. 3010 or Elmer Eddy at (910) 389-4588.

Feel free to view the attached pictures to see what Shackelford Banks has to offer.

Wild Horse.JPG

Famliy Fun.JPG

group.jpg

NOTE: The above request has been reviewed by Public Affairs, and does not meet Department of the Navy criteria required for official command support; however, non-directed/unofficial individual/group involvement is permissible, under the following conditions:

· Volunteers must be volunteers (Nobody can, or should, tell you to participate. While service members from the same unit may personally decide to participate together, no one in the unit's chain of command may direct such participation.)

· Volunteers must be on authorized liberty (Involvement in this activity needs to be on your personal time; not when you are in an official duty status. Similarly, military uniforms, and government materials and equipment intended for official use only, may not be used during your involvement in such events).

· Career and Service enhancement (Participation in such volunteer activities, although not in an official capacity, should bring credit to the Corps without implication of selective endorsement.)

For questions or comments about guidelines related to official command support of community relations events, please contact Capt Justin Colvin (JPAO) at 466-4241

Please note that the Shackleford Banks Clean-up scheduled this weekend has been changed from a Saturday and Sunday event to a Saturday only event. Please come out Saturday April 24th and help with this effort. Meet at the Local Yokel dock, Harkers Island, before 9am. Call Ranger Dave with questions:

Dave Carney
Resource Education Park Ranger
Cape Lookout National Seashore
131 Charles Street
Harkers Island, North Carolina 28531
(252) 728-2250 Ext. 3010

I didn't get to speak, but did get a copy of the letter to the commissioners (see last night's post).

This is what we received from Ranger Dave. It tells the story better than I can. Photos are below.

Elmer/Jessica,

I would like to start by thanking you both for all of the work that you
have done to make this clean up successful. The work both of you have done
is commendable and Cape Lookout National Seashore is very grateful.

After the past weekend I have evaluated the progress and logistics of what
we have done and it is impressive. As we move toward next weekend, I need
to let you know what I can see from the Shackleford side of the clean up. I
can see by last weekend's clean up that recruiting for a larger number of
participants may not benefit us as much as it may seem. On Saturday, we
worked with the clean up with 9 people including myself, and on Sunday we
had 16 people. Though both groups worked just as hard, the area covered did
not increase by the number of people. This happened simply because the only
mode of transportation on the island is by foot. There are only so may drop
off points on Shackleford so spreading the drop offs would only serve to
confuse my efforts to remove the trash from the island while placing too
much strain on our ferry service. In order to keep things organized on the
island and allow me to keep up with the location of the trash collected,
the best number to work with is between 10 and 25 people. The more we
increase the number over 20, the harder it is to keep things organized on
the island. The 9:00 to 3:00 time frame seems to work the best because it
is early, but allows folks time to travel to Harkers Island. We could move
the start time up to 8:30, but I am afraid that you will not get folks who
are willing to arrive that early because most of the folks coming are
traveling at least 30 minutes.

The following are some things that people should be aware of for the coming
weekend. Watch the weather. If the wind speeds increase over 15 MPH the
clean up will most likely be canceled because it is difficult to transport
folks in high winds and the trash, trash bags, and equipment are difficult
to handle in high winds. We have moved around to where we are on the ocean
side of the island and we are unprotected from the winds on that side. If
the weather is calling for rain we will cancel the clean up because there
is no shelter on the island. The drop off point will continue to be the
ferry dock where we were dropped off and picked up on Sunday. Because of
this, we will start our day by walking to where we left off and we will
have to walk a distance at the end of the day to return to the dock. The
ferry service can't get us to the ocean side because of the surf on that
side of the island. I know that you do not want to discourage folks from
participating, but they will need to know that the logistics will mean more
walking, higher winds, less shelter, and more difficult terrain than we
have been working with thus far. We don't want to get folks who are
unprepared for the work that is needed. We also have to let folks know that
anything that they bring with them will need to be carried so less is
better. Folks will want to make sure that they have good walking shoes that
can get wet, water, lunch, sunscreen, and bug repellant. We want to make
sure that everyone know what they are getting into before they arrive at
the island. I don't want anyone getting into more than they can handle, and
I want to make sure everyone makes it through the clean up safely.

Thanks again for all that you are doing. You have made a great impact on
the park.

Dave Carney
Resource Education Park Ranger
Cape Lookout National Seashore
131 Charles Street
Harkers Island, North Carolina 28531
(252) 728-2250 Ext. 3010

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA
The National Park Service cares for special places saved by
the American people so that all may experience our heritage.

Tonight I present a Resolution for Onslow County Commissioners to submit to our legislators to Keep Onslow Beautiful and our entire State.

We want to thank you for your support in our fight against littering last year. Unfortunately ,
Isabel came along and shut us right down.

We have started the program all over again now beginning where we left last year. Our goal is to reach every man, woman and child asking them to join in this fight against littering.

To further help us reach this goal we would like you to submit the following to our legislators to become a condition of all privilege licenses. We hope this will make everyone conscious of the fact that littering is illegal and make them stop and think before discarding their trash.

The idea is very simple, but we think it will produce excellent results in curtailing littering. Please reword it to your own satisfaction.

{Resolved, we, The Commissioners of Onslow County, hereby request that the words, “I/We will not litter”, appear right above the signature line of all future new and renewal privilege licenses, both individual and commercial granted by the State of North Carolina.”)

Personal licenses would be driving, hunting ,fishing, trapping, etc and commercial would be fishing, all forms of contracting, and trades licenses like, insurance, banking, lawyers, doctors etc.

I talked with Sarah Humphries about this before her retirement and with Lisa Stokesbury, her replacement, and both like this idea.

Everyone I have spoken to about it thinks it is a great idea and that it should help curtail litter.

I even wrote Gov. Easeley and he suggested I request our legislator to introduce such a bill.

I have never done this, but now feel the time is ripe to do this and that it would be received much better and have much more clout coming from you instead of The Trashman.

This was the trash collected by paddlers on Chaney Creek:

Now is the time for all citizens to come to the aid of our country and stop, or at least, curtail littering.
 
Please duplicate the following on your own letterhead or your firm's you work for. Have your church do it too. And your club and your schools and your friends. The point is we need to reach every citizen and visitor. Don't worry about duplicate signatures. Do it again and again. This way we will be sure to reach everyone and make them think twice before discarding littwhereverver they may be.
 
This is a new campaign in the fight against littering.
 
Choose the statement which suits your fancy, or choose all three, and put the number or numbers beside your name.
 
To Keep America Beautiful:  #1 I will not litter  #2 I do not litter  #3  I will fight litter
 
(Example:  signed:  Elmer B Eddy  1,2,3  Fill the page up with signatures).
 
Mail it or e-mail it to the anti litter group you may be working with or to us.

Thank you, Elmer

Please help clean up this entire island along its 13 mile ocean beach front and along the sound side and in the middle along the trails made by our wild horses.
 
Just show up at The Local Yokel  Ferry in Harkers Island at 9:00 AM on April 17 or 18 and again on the 24th or 25th.. Get a free ride over. See the horses as you remove the litter we have discarded on their habitat.
 
Or, paddle over there in your own kayak or canoe any time.. Pick up a few bags. Leave them on the sound side above the high tide line.
 
Dave Carney, Resource Education Park Ranger and Dr Sue Stuska, Ed.D., Wildlife Biologist-Horses and all others in our National Park Service, Cape Lookout National Seashore, U. S. Department of the Interior, will appreciate it very much but, most of all, think about our wild horses. Let's get our man made litter off their dining room table and out of their bed rooms and out of their living rooms and off their playground.
 
And do it for our tourists, also, who come from all over the world to see our National Seashore Park and our wild horses. Let's send them home with fond memories of North Carolina uncluttered by litter.     Elmer

 

We've tried a couple of ways of making the web site more interactive. We hope using blogger will help.

photo of chaney creek collection

Chaney Creek has had all man made trash removed yesterday. Thanks to New River Foundation who organized the event. Marines and Camp Lejeune Young Marines pitched in along with many other good citizens.
 
Two Young Marines were over heard, "Isn't it against the law to litter?"  They were perplexed as to why all this litter was here.
 
I wish I had an answer for them.
 
I do know that if no one litters, there will be no litter. We, the people, discard everything we don't want. not only in Chaney Creek, but everywhere!
 
Only, we the people, can stop it. Just don't do it!   Elmer
 
Pictures on our web site soon.

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