Cleaning up St. Helen Motor Sports Area

[Jarhead]

Brewmenn says, "I spent a few hours walking around the St. Helen Motor sports area and found quite a bit of garbage. A few shingle piles, some old dump sites, and quite a bit of droped garbage.

How would we go about cleaning it up? Is there any state programs to get money to pay for a dumpster and disposal fees?

Do you think we could get a decent sized crew up there next spring sometime? Maybe we could even convince someone from the area with a dump truck and a small end loader to help with the shingle piles.

[brewmenn]

There will be an "Adopt a Forest" clean up at the St Helen Motorsports area and the surrounding area (Richfield township)

Date: Saturday, April 25th.

Time: registration from 8am-9am, We'll work until the 30 yard dumpster is full. Hopefully by about 4pm.

Meeting place: The township park in St Helen. 10415 Airport Rd, St Helen MI 48656.

What to Bring:
Work gloves
steel rakes
shovels
Rain gear
Pickup truck or Jeep/SUV with a utility trailer. Most known trash sites are in fairly open areas so you don't have to worry about scratches. Some sites may be accessible to 2 wheel drive vehicles, some will require 4 wheel drive.

Lunch will be provided.

A few other things I'm looking for help with:
I'd like to have coffee and doughnuts in the morning at registration. Anyone want to help provide that?
Heavy equipment. I have 1 skid steer lined up. I'd like to have a second "end loader" type machine if possible. Just keep in mind that we'll be using it for removing plies of old shingles dumped in the woods, volunteer at your own risk.
I'd like to get some fliers put up at some of the businesses around there to try to get some of the local people out to help. If anyone can help with that let me know. I put together a flier but it's on my computer at work so I'll try to get that posted tomorrow.

Note that I'm posting this on several sites so there may be multiple discussions going on about this.

Site admin: please move and/or sticky as you deem appropriate.

[shawn]

Thanks Bruce, I'll see if I can make it.

[Jarhead]

...Site admin: please move and/or sticky as you deem appropriate.

Post/Thread is already a "Sticky"

Planning to attend but have a few details to work out as yet...

[Ridin Dirty]

Bruce, I will still need to get with Jeremy, but it is looking like I will be bringing a skid steer with me.

[brewmenn]

Bruce, I will still need to get with Jeremy, but it is looking like I will be bringing a skid steer with me.

Thats the one I'm already counting on.

[Ridin Dirty]

Bruce, it's looking like we are going to be lonely out there...

[brewmenn]

http://www.glfwda.org/photoplog/images/4/large/1_St.jpg

[phittie1100]

Sorry Bruce - we aren't going to make it

[Trail_Fanatic]

http://www.glfwda.org/photoplog/images/4/large/1_St.jpg

:thumb:

Looks GREAT Bruce!
I have a Conservation Congress meeting in Grayling that day or I'd be there FOR SURE!

I'll be thinking of you, hope you have great weather and that it's a fantastic success.

:yourock:

[Jarhead]

In that my truck broke in route to Silver Lake during the shake-down cruise, we will not be able to attend.

[Tippy]

Glad I was able to make this. Bruce you are AWESOME!:thumb:
Thanks to Marv and Sue for having us lunch ready, Jeremy ( kaiser42 ), Roger (Riding Dirty), Jason (DirtPoor) for making sure we had a Skid steer, and everyone else that showed up and stuck it out in the rain.

[Rattler]

Glad I was able to make this. Bruce you are AWESOME!:thumb:
Thanks to Marv and Sue for having us lunch ready, Jeremy ( kaiser42 ), Roger (Riding Dirty), Jason (DirtPoor) for making sure we had a Skid steer, and everyone else that showed up and stuck it out in the rain.

It was wet but fun and constructive! It was my wife's first and she really felt good about ding the clean-up.

[DDS4X4]

THANKS to ALL for their efforts!

[Jarhead]

Thank You to All of You that were able to attend.

Thank You Bruce for putting this together.

Thank You Marv and Sue for providing lunch.

[Trail_Fanatic]

Bruce,

:yourock:

[T-way]

I wasn't able to attend, but I'd also like to thank all of those who did!

And also a BIG THANKS to Bruce for spearheading this effort. I've put together a couple of big cleanups in the past, so I know it's a lot of work!

:thumb::thumb:

[brewmenn]

I wasn't able to attend, but I'd also like to thank all of those who did!

And also a BIG THANKS to Bruce for spearheading this effort. I've put together a couple of big cleanups in the past, so I know it's a lot of work!

:thumb::thumb:

Putting it together was easy. All it took was about 3 phone calls.

Getting people to show up to help is the hardest part.:(

[T-way]

I hear ya brother!!

:thumb:

[DDS4X4]

And sometimes just getting there is the hard part, hey Bruce!???

Thanks for hanging in there and getting it done!

[brewmenn]

And sometimes just getting there is the hard part, hey Bruce!???

Yeah, really.

[Trail_Fanatic]

Bruce,

In my opinion, you have done a great thing.
Take pride knowing that all of that trash is gone because YOU took the initiative to organize the event. You have earned it well (not to take anything away from all the hard work your volunteers put forward too!). :thumb:

Volunteers seem to come with time.
The first 5 years of the Two Tracker's Clean Up were all less than 20 people (most times around a dozen to 15).
But then it started to take off . . . 35, 50, 75, 125, 250, and this year 175. With a really down economy, I worried this year might be a LOT lower than that, but people really came through.

I think having it on the same weekend of the year, every year, and meeting at the same place has helped quite a bit. Folks try it, like it, and bring friends and it grows.

Unless there's some Land Use meeting that I can't get out of or reschedule, I'm already planning to be at next year's event, if you're willing to hold it again (I hope).

:yourock:

[brewmenn]

Unless there's some Land Use meeting that I can't get out of or reschedule, I'm already planning to be at next year's event, if you're willing to hold it again (I hope).

:yourock:

I talked about it with the Swamp Stompers at our meeting yesterday and they are supportive of it being an annual event. We'll try to set a date for next year when we set our calander for next year.

[Ridin Dirty]

I'll be there again.