April 13, 2019.  Three PSC members (Helen Gretz, Tom Miceli, Paul Klonowski), who are also Lake County Forest Preserve River Stewardship Volunteers, joined with more LCFP Volunteers, and set out to clean up the Des Plaines River, from Gowe Park (near Grand Ave) to Rte 120.  The route is about 2.5 miles long, which sound short for a paddling day, but it was a cleanup.  We had work to do...

  Started cool, the sun warmed it up, but quite windy.  

We cut safe passage through two log jams that are getting larger, and trimmed back some tree parts in two more, that will keep them from snagging more tree parts.  Four large trash bags were filled with generally small pieces of trash: styrofoam, beverage containers, plastics of all varieties.  We cleaned out an illegal but vacant camp site, removing two tarps, a large pile of trash, and we took apart the fire ring of rocks, throwing many into the river, so they'll be harder to find.  We helped this individual Leave No Trace.  This is a perennial camp area for someone, who likes to stick small American flags in the mud, where they get washed away in high water events.  Yeah, that shows a lot of respect for the flag...  

It was a great day on the river!  Join us April 27th, for our next scheduled cleanup!  Remember you get double PSC points for cleanups...  

Paul K