Stewards of the White Oak River Basin Current Events

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