Pigeon River Project Report

Thanks to the 18 volunteers who gave up a Saturday morning to help out with a stream cleanup and habitat project on the Pigeon River in Hemlock Park in Ottawa County on August 23rd. The group removed several tires, a couple of rusted out drums, and hundreds of glass bottles from a quarter mile stretch of the river. The group also removed a couple of log jams that restricted flow and cabled the removed logs to the river banks to protect against erosion and provide cover for trout. Some rock work was done to improve spawning habitat. Our plan is to come back to the Pigeon next year for some additional work so join us for another productive outing! Photos from the day can be found on our SWMTU Photo Gallery at https://swmtu.org/gallery/v/Dave+Smith/Pigeon08/

Special thanks to John McCarthy for coming up with the idea for this project and his generous financial support. Other volunteers included:

Matthew DeVries
Doug DeVries
George Buursma
Dave Fetters
Gerald Hungerink
Don Messinger
Josh Zuiderveen
Gerg Bazain
Peter Liken
Steve Boeve
John Clough
Mike Simcik
Jerry Hetrick
Kim Wikel
Jared Sartini
Roger Miller
Dave Smith

Comments (3)

Dave DeJonge

August 29, 2008

Nice work guys! Thanks for the effort!

Gerald Hungerink

September 9, 2008

As a participant in the cleanup I was amazed at the amount of junk that was picked up in a few hundred feet of river. I also was impressed by the flow and coolness of the stream that long ago was only good for sucker spearing. I am looking forward to checking it out next year to see what changes the work caused. Now I must say that for a few hours labor I was very tired and hot but felt good about what had been accomplished.
My thanks also for all those that helped out.

Mike Simcik

February 12, 2009

It’s difficult to explain how much the water has impacted my life, I could honestly write a book from childhood to present day. I felt it was a privilege being asked to assist in saving a small part of our natural resources and would do it again with pride. What we found at the bottom of this Creek was disturbing to say the least. However after many hours of hard work those guy’s managed to clean it up using bare hands and a small Aluminum boat and made it safer to navigate.
Another crew did work on the bank to protect the fingerlings from preditors, a differnt group removed wind fall obstructing water flow. A learning experiance for me and I’m trying to give something back to that which brought life to our planet. A tribute to wildlife and fish, past, present, & future.

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