PBRR XIX

Project Blue River Rescue 2009- this FOLNC event has celebrated it's nineteenth successful river clean up- Sunny and warm was the weather- those who showed seemed to be in an almost festive mood! Coordinators did the usual coordinating and volunteers went about trekking the parking lots to undergo a transformation that would leave them warm, tired and with a brand new T-shirt!

I was signed up for the Coal Mine Road site after Wildcat Hollow was cancelled for at least the second year in a row. Coal Mine has been a known dump site for decades- near an ancient cement mill-thing and a bit east of the stadiums. Immediately I was adopted by Bill in a great big Dump-Truck thing- he always treats me!

An hour or two of set-up and FREE DOUGHNUTS and catchin' up with all of those folks you haven't seen since the last Blue River Rescue and each group began to leave for their designated part of the park.
Today's forests glow with just the slightest yellow-green as trees display their first signs of leaves and buds. The city is still generally winter-like and we've had little precipitation. The group of PBRR's most devoted volunteers went about their annual Morel mushroom predictions- unlike previous years, nobody suggested that mushrooms would be up this day of the clean-up. Bill told me that they were being collected near Osceola!

At Coal mine there was a lot of household Crap like clothes and shoes and cookware and such.. We had two groups to attack both sides of the road- (our side was nicer!) One pool of water- only yards from the road- was filled with plastic and busted windows and was the 'project' for our team of giant mechanical toys. The work was wet, and it sure didn't smell too nice, either, but everyone found the day worth-while!

A young volunteer lifted a pair of over sized gloves to my attention; his hands cradled a delicate skink found amongst a shoe-dump. The cleanup is widely recognized as family friendly and draws volunteers of all ages. Lunch was the next order of business for volunteers- the crowds filled lakeside again before a few crews reassembled to finish cleaning individual sites. Some people became nervous to hear gunfire so close, but what came and went in just a few minutes turned out to be a Police Shooting range and nobody felt endangered.

For Coal Mine Road, this also meant the installation of a few rows of cement and wooden barricades to block dumpers from getting too close to the river. I believe that the long row of impassible objects will prove successful, but I guess tat we will have to wait until next year to find out!