Stokes 5th Graders get Environmental Awareness

The Stokes County Soil & Water Conservation District hosted their annual Environmental Awareness Day at Hanging Rock State Park on Thursday, April 19, 2012 ... and this year DRBA got to help with the Tub'O'Bugs program developed by our own Wayne Kirkpatrick. DRBA staffer, Dale Swanson, along with Chad Lange and Sara Jo Durham, talked with class after class of Stokes County 5th graders about the importance of healthy streams and all of the remarkable "fish food" that lives in them in the form of macro-invertebrates. -->

It was a lot of fun for us and it sure looked like the children enjoyed the creepy-crawlies while they absorbed just a little environmental science.

Dan River Cleanup :: Hart's Access to Highway 89

Preparing to launch the cleanup from Hart's Access
at the Hwy 704 bridge

At 10:00am on April 14, 2012, a total of 5 young men met at the intersection of Highway 89 and Old Lynchburg Rd. just north of Danbury, NC. Four canoes and one kayak were loaded onto Dave Kuley's trailer and we headed upstream for the first river cleanup in Stokes County of the year. We logged over 7 miles in just under 7 hours with a total take of 1,100 pounds of tires (18), roof metal, hypalon, old equipment of various types, and plenty of containers of every description.

Canoes as trash barges.

Many thanks to Nathan Krizmanich, Jimmy Newsome, Lucas Conkle & Dave Kuley. Special thanks to Oakley Mabe for permitting use of his property near the Highway 89 bridge for accessing the river and unloading our over burdened canoes. Further thanks to Kitty Brown for providing trash transport from the river to the Stokes County Solid Waste Transfer Station in Quaker Gap and to Jesse Moore for outstanding supervisory services.
One final thanks to the County for accepting our collected refuse without charge!

At the end of a long Big Sweeping day.This photo does not do justice to the pile of junk behind us.

If you know an organization that would like to help clean up our river and county please contact Sara Jo Durham or Dale Swanson for more information and to schedule a cleanup.

April 14 River Cleanup - TIME CHANGE

In light of the cool weather we've been having we will delay meeting on Saturday morning until 10am. Be sure to dress appropriately with synthetic clothes in layers ... it WILL be warming up a little!