Stewards of the White Oak River Basin Current Events

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.