The Little Miami River Keepers are up for a grant and you can help.

Do you know the Little Miami River Keepers? They have a great story of a simple initiative among neighbors that has grown into a major volunteer project attracting national attention. And – they need your help with a simple click.

The River Keepers are in the running for a grant from Tom’s of Maine – if they end up in the top 6 (currently they’re at 13, so you need to get clickin’), they will receive some much needed funding. Click here to vote for them. Learn more about why below.

I spoke to River Keepers Founder Steve Knopp and Barry Tiffany, Sugarcreek Township Administrator and all-around volunteer for the River Keepers, to learn more about this great initiative; they shared with me their history and future plans.

Barry started the conversation by sharing the story of neighbors who care enough to do something. Steve Knopp loves being out on the river to fish (although he admits he rarely catches much), but he doesn’t like to see the trash. Hope Taft (Former First Lady of Ohio) and her family use the river for relaxation and recreation, and each time they’re out, they do their small part to pick up some trash as they ride. These neighbors started talking about their vision for a cleaner environment and decided to do something about the trash that was damaging the river. In 2010, Steve and Hope arranged approximately 60 volunteers who came together to cover 7 miles of the river and pick up one ton of trash.

Yeah, that's a 40 ft. long wire getting pulled out of the river

Everyone was hooked on the great success and what a difference people working together could make. So they did it again in 2011 – only bigger!

This July, the initiative grew. The Little Miami River Keepers – in partnership with other river protection organizations across the region – orchestrated a clean-up of  400+ volunteers covering all 105 miles of the Little Miami (from its source in Clark Co. to the southern tip where it meets the Ohio River) and they collected 10-15 tons (20-30,000 pounds) of trash – everything from Styrofoam cups and plastic bags to hundreds of tires and multiple television sets. Barry and Steve shared a unique clean-up story: They were in a group that pulled out a 28 foot wrought iron utility pole (weighing approx 300 lbs) out of the river. Being unsure how to deal with it in the canoes (and after losing it a few times), Barry hopped on and rode it down the river to a point where they could get it out.

I asked Barry how the river gets so dirty. He explained that the challenge is never-ending. Some trash accumulates from drains washing into the tributaries and making their way to the river, some trash is from people in canoes who tip over and everything floats away, and other trash is specifically dumped. One team of volunteers who started their clean-up by a bridge in Greene County found 5 TV sets dumped down by the river – presumably just tossed out of cars. They lugged the sets up to the side of the road for pick-up and began work. So many tires were found during the clean-up because even when fully submerged, the tires just go with the flow of the water until hung up by a tree root or something that stops it. Broken glass is a major concern due to the danger element.

Some of the grossness that came out of the river. Now imagine 15 tons of it. Ick.

River cleanliness is important to different people for different reasons. Talking to Barry, you can feel a pride in his voice for the Miami Valley and the region. He wants to highlight one of the great natural resources that’s available here. Steve thinks of the river as Dayton’s own amusement park. He says, “You can take your kids, grandkids, friends – and for absolutely zero cost you can enjoy what the river has to offer – fishing,  canoeing, picnicking, you can take your own intertube and just have a blast with a group of friends.” But more than just having a fun time in the river, he knows the value of making a recreation spot clean. He continues, “When you visit the (amusement) park, they’re pristine clean and there’s no trash. Now imagine going to the Little Miami with styrophoam and a car turned upside down.” He knows trash in the river isn’t going to attract fun-seekers, so he wants to clean it up to get it to its “complete natural state.” Steve said that he’s a much more visual person, whereas Hope can tell you the types of fish and the number of species and what’s happening in the river as a natural environment. Everyone has their reason for wanting it clean, but getting the job done is what’s most important.

Barry said that the River Keepers are doing what they can to create awareness and encourage people to stop dumping, but he acknowledges that it’ll always be a problem. So – the focus of the River Keepers is to clean. In doing so, they have applied to Tom’s of Maine for a grant. The six organizations from across the county who are voted to win will each receive financial support. If they win the $10,000, that will support an individual clean-up project. If they come out as the big winner of the $50K, they will be able to turn it into a trust for the long-term success of the group.

Are you telling me you don't see government officials riding poles down the river everyday?

Why would the organization need so much money for a few volunteers to clean up the river? It’s a major undertaking that needs more than just manpower. In addition to the supplies each volunteer needs, the renting of the canoes, and the River Keepers plan to make a major impact by bringing in some big machinery. According to Steve, even though they’ve picked up a lot of trash – there’s easily ten times the debris still in the river. So much of the trash is large-scale and can’t be handled by canoes – they’ve found old cars that have been in the river for over 20 years, dozens of 55-Gallon barrel drums, big truck tires (with rims), a hot tub and a dumpster among the larger items to be pulled out of the river. The grant from Tom’s of Maine will help fund this major endeavor by allowing them to contract with construction companies who can pull out these large items and cover the expenses incurred by private residents who have their property damaged when a back-hoe drives through “Farmer Joe’s” field pulling out an old car.

So, help out a great initiative of neighbors banning together and making a major difference for all of us who enjoy the over 100 miles of what the Little Miami has to offer. Vote today (and tomorrow, and everyday until voting ends).

Learn more:

Info on the Little Miami State and National Scenic River – the first river to receive that official designation from the State of Ohio.

Get info about the River Keepers on their Facebook page or their Web site.

And don’t forget to VOTE for them to win the grant!

Riverscape Phase IV Proposal (click for larger view)

Over the past ten years, Dayton has been bringing people back to the shores of our rivers (Great Miami River, Mad River, Stillwater River, Wolf Creek and Twin Creek) with the ongoing development of Riverscape.  Phase I/II was completed in 2001/2003 and Phase III was completed last summer with the addition of a permanent covered pavilion, new ice skating rink and bike hub.  It would be easy to assume that the project is now complete but Five Rivers MetroParks is still not done, and they now have their sights set IN the river itself.

On any given summer day, one can see a paddler or two in our downtown river.  There is actually a nice river run that begins at Eastwood Lake MetroPark with Mad River and takes you to Riverscape and into the Great Miami River, but because of a treacherous low dam you really can’t go any further than the I-75 bridge.  This low dam is one of six that were installed in our various rivers after the Dayton Flood of 1913 to prevent further disasters, and along with the earthen levies they have done the job for the past 98 years (correction – the dams were added to create a pooling effect for recreational purposes).  In fact, the “hydraulic jump” dam was invented in Dayton by Arthur Morgan (is there anything that wasn’t invented here?) but decades later they are now being replaced in other cities because of their reputation as death traps.  Get stuck in the undertow at the bottom of one of these things and you’re not getting out without some major help – not exactly conducive to paddling.
In cooperation with the Miami Conservancy District, City of Dayton and Montgomery County (and as part of the ‘Rivers, Cycling & Active Lifestyle committee of the Greater Downtown Dayton Plan), Five Rivers MetroParks has just announced its proposal to remove the downtown low dam and install two grade-control whitewater/bypass “canoe” channels that will make the river navigable through downtown and past Carillon Park.  A similar effort is being implemented in nearby Springfield’s Buck Creek, with two of four low dams having been converted last year.

In addition to making the river safer and navigable, the project would improve the health of the river and increase fish stock – an outcome experienced relatively quickly in other locations where low dams were similarly removed.  A pair of jetties would be constructed with rocks and boulders at each channel (see proposal above), giving visitors and spectators ways to sit and enjoy the river up-close, and planners anticipate the project would draw even more people downtown and to the river.  Recreation Engineering and Planning has completed a preliminary design, and sediment testing has been conducted and passed.  Next steps include regulatory permitting, memorandum understanding between the various stakeholder groups, fund raising and then final engineering and implementation.  The project is estimated to cost $2.9 million for the low dam removal and in-river work, with an additional $1.1 million for river bank modifications and enhancements – totaling $4 million.

A similar project was completed in Pueblo, CO – converting a larger low dam into five consecutive drops like the two proposed for Dayton.  The Pueblo Whitewater Park now attracts thousands of paddlers and spectators each year – check out the video and imagine this scene in front of our own Riverscape.  Yes this could be the next game changer for Downtown Dayton.

Today, some hearty fellow Daytonians followed in their footsteps, sort of. They looked at piles of debris and said, “I think I can row this.”

And then they tried.

At Riverscape, in the shadow of the Engineers Club and a statue of the Wright Brothers taking flight, we watched do-it-youselfers take part in Dayton’s Outrageous River Derby. If I heard emcee Commodore Jim Bucher of WDTN Channel 2 correctly, this was the 14th one.

But it was my first, and it turned out to be a beautiful day to hang out by the river for some silly fun. The gist of the event is this: Make a raft, any kind of raft, get it in the river, and race it down the river a hundred yards or so. Try not to sink.

Themes included a Lady Gaga boudoir and an Abe Lincoln who looked suspiciously like a plastic Jesus with an electrical tape beard. A last-minute entry was made of a pipe frame, cardboard, saran wrap and duct tape.

Was there lots of duct tape, you ask?

Did Wilbur wear a funny hat?

The paddle prizes didn’t go only to the swift. The judging panel included an engineer, some student artists from Stivers and K-12 gallery, who gave out prizes in categories like creativity and most-likely-to-sink before the race even started. I can’t tell you who won the superlatives because we’d taken a pause from the sun to get snacks for our boys.

Poor Man's Kayak, the derby winner

But then again, I can tell you who won: Everyone there because it was just goofy fun, a gorgeous blue sky, a soft breeze and a great time at Riverscape.

After we downed our snacks, we sat at the river’s edge and watched the race. Honest Abe got a little dishonest help from someone pushing, and Lady Gaga was surprisingly strong. What I mean by that is that I still have no idea how she stayed afloat.

But they finished second and third. The race went to Poor Man’s Kayak, which turned out to be a fine kayak indeed, held aloft by rows and rows of one-liter soda bottles on its underside and sped along by a very able rower with a great sense of balance.

I’m not sure we’d have made Orville and Wilbur proud, but I have no doubt our hometown ingenuity would’ve made them laugh.