Save Maumee Group Conducts River Cleanup
By Scott Sarvay
September 29, 2010 Updated Sep 29, 2010 at 4:28 PM EST
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - A local
environmental group is worried about the health and
safety of Fort Wayne's rivers and a recent cleanup
effort showed they are often mistreated.
Abigail King with the Save Maumee Grassroots
Organization says about 60 volunteers walked riverbanks
and floated in canoes on September 18th, removing trash
from the Saint Mary's River near downtown.
She says tires, a bed mattress, kitchen sink and
portable meth lab were among items pulled from the
rivers.
She was just as irritated by the discovery of condoms.
King says, “Abigail King/Save Maumee: " Those aren't
extra curricular activities on the river, that is from
what people flush down their toilets. It's going
directly into your river, so things don't just go away
when you flush them down your toilet."
The city of Fort Wayne has also organized efforts to
clean all the Saint Mary's, Saint Joe and Maumee Rivers
within the past two-years.
© Copyright 2011 A Granite Broadcasting Station. All
rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Photos by Cathie Rowand | The Journal
Gazette
Abigail Frost King, left, and
her son Canaan Eubank, 14, collect trash
along the Maumee River on Saturday. Upper
Maumee Watershed Partnership sponsored the
Bi-State River Cleanup.
Last updated: July 25, 2010 10:16
a.mVolunteers spent hours
cleaning the Maumee River,
replanting the banks along the way.
Tires. A Little Tikes sport coupe. DVD
cases. A car door.
Sounds like trash in a junkyard or a city
dump. But it’s litter found in the Maumee
River.
The Upper Maumee River Watershed
Partnership and local volunteers spent
several hours Saturday canoeing down a
two-mile stretch of the Maumee gathering
trash as part of the Bi-State River Cleanup.
This is the first event the partnership
has organized, but treasurer Abby Frost has
led several outings on other parts of the
river with the Save Maumee Grassroots
Organization.
Volunteers used canoes and boats to scour
the river and collect as much trash as
possible.
But with limited time and minimal
manpower, they had to leave a lot behind.
“There’s a lot of stuff we had to leave
out there, which I wasn’t expecting to do,”
said Chelsie Werling, 21.
“It reminds you that you need to take
care of the river and why you want to
protect it.”
A mayonnaise container, Axe body spray
bottle and a small abandoned boat about the
size of a canoe were all stranded in the
river.
And then there were the ducks. About
2,000 plastic ducks were reported missing
after the 22nd annual Duck Race fundraising
event for Stop Child Abuse & Neglect.
Each canoe brought back dozens of the
miniature ducks they found floating along
the Maumee.
Despite cleanings done by local groups,
trash continues to accumulate, said Greg
Lake, Allen County Soil and Water
Conservation District director. Lake also is
the steering committee chair for the
partnership.
“The sad part is, a lot of people who use
the rivers the most trash it up,” Lake said.
“It’s frustrating.”
Upper Maumee is the third active
watershed project in Allen County, Lake
said.
The group is looking to apply for funding
from various state and federal sources to
engage in conservation efforts, but first it
must develop and submit a watershed
management plan. The goal is to do so within
the next year, Lake said.
The amount of trash in the river is just
one indication of the effect humans have.
“People don’t understand the consequences
of the things they do,” Lake said, citing
examples of gutter drains and agricultural
runoff.
Volunteer and activist groups allow
people to get to participate and try to
preserve local resources.
“This is kind of a hands-on approach that
you can actually get people involved with
instead of just sitting at meetings,” Frost
said. “People want to feel empowered and
like they can make a difference.”
cjohnston@jg.net
Stay Away from Rivers, Sewage Infested
Reported by: Marchelle McConnell
Monday, April 26 2010
watch video
The recent rainy weather is causing the combined sewer
system to overflow. That means rainwater and sanitary
sewage are mixing and draining into the rivers. The city
sent 3 alerts over the past 72 hours telling residents
to stay away from river water, that's because sanitary
sewage is making its way into the rivers.
Sewage overflow is nothing new to the city. Overflow
happens an average of 71 times a year. The city is
working to reduce sewage discharge to 4 times a year.
But so far this year, the combined sewers have already
overflowed 12 times.
Frank Suarez, the Public Information Officer for City
Utilities, says “When it rains, the storage in the pipe
does not have enough capacity to handle the extra rain
and flow going through the pipes so they historically
overflow.”
Abigail Frost, a clean water advocate and founder of
Save Maumee, says “It's every time it rains a 10th of an
inch. You know how often that is. It could be anytime.”
Frost says the contaminated water can make you sick. “If
you get it in any of your orifices or if you have an
open wound or abrasion of some kind that would be a
concern for an infection.”
The city is working to fix the problem. Suarez says
“This is what we are correcting with our $240 million
dollar project as we do sewer separation projects and
additional projects where we are adding new ponds to
help with storage capacity.”
The city has an agreement with the Environmental
Protection Agency to reduce overflow by 91% percent by
2025. That means reducing the number of overflows to 4
times per year.
Until then, no fines will be handed down. The only
consequence for now is dirty water.
Suarez says the rivers will continue to overflow for the
next several years. They have reduced 40 million gallons
of overflow so far this year. The goal is a reduction of
2 billion gallons.
300 pick up trash in, along Maumee
It's Earth Day effort to raise awareness of
city's three rivers.
By Sarah Janssen
of The News-Sentinel
♦This year, volunteers pulled out two
refrigerators, a plow and a water heater, among
other items.
♦Since 2005, Save Maumee has removed 7.5 tons of
garbage from the rivers and their banks and
planted more than 740 trees. The group and its
volunteers have used 700 pounds of seed to
create more than 10,000 feet of erosion control.
For more information and ways you can save water
and energy in your home, check out
www.savemaumee.org.
Save Maumee founder Abby Frost is tired of
meetings, so she decided to take action.
Sunday's Earth Day Celebration marked the fifth
anniversary of Frost's efforts to raise
awareness about the condition of the three
rivers in Fort Wayne and restore the ecosystems
there.
“These are not new ideas. Everybody wants to sit
in meetings, but we need to move forward with a
plan,” Frost said. “I do this because I care.”
About 300 people came out 11 a.m.-4 p.m. to help
pick up trash and plant seeds along the Maumee
River.
Participants enjoyed wildlife demonstrations,
free food and live music.
Wayne Sears, who recently moved his family to
Fort Wayne, brought his three children out to
help clean up the river after his wife met
Frost.
“We heard about it and wanted to help,” he said.
Frost thought the day was a success because so
many people of all ages volunteered to work.
Everyone came together in organized chaos.
“It all worked out for the best,” she said.
Bruce Allen plants raspberry bushes for
erosion control on Sunday as part of
Save Maumee”s fifth annual Earth Day
celebration to help clean up the river.
Brenden Sears, 8, left, and Keiran
Ward, 11, collect trash in the
Maumee River on Sunday.
It was a little bit like a scavenger
hunt along the Maumee River on
Sunday, although clues were often
bad smells and nobody wanted to
touch what they found.
Trash-busters scour up Maumee
Published: April 19, 2010 3:00 a.m.
Devon Haynie
|
The Journal Gazette
Sunday
marked Save Maumee’s fifth annual
Earth Day celebration near North
Anthony Boulevard and Niagara Drive.
About 100 volunteers gathered this
year to plant seeds and pull objects
they could from the muddy river.
“This year I pulled out a gas
tank,” Abigail Frost, the event
organizer, said as she stood on the
banks of the river near a pile of
trash. “This here is a trailer
hitch. And this (she pointed to two
metal poles) … I have no idea what
this is.”
Frost started Save Maumee five
years ago to get the community
involved in keeping the river clean.
She said she didn’t think much about
Fort Wayne’s rivers until 2000 when
she moved near the Maumee.
She was about to let her kids
swim in the river when friends
warned against it. Curious about how
polluted it was, Frost started doing
research. What she learned appalled
her – the water was tainted by
sewage, manure and dangerous
chemicals.
“By 2005, I couldn’t shut my
mouth anymore,” she said. “I had to
take action.”
When Frost first started her
Earth Day activities, she used her
own money to pay for seeds to plant
along the shore. Today, she depends
on proceeds from T-shirt sales and
horse rides throughout the day. She
also accepts seed donations from
people and the Little River
Wetlands.
In the past, Frost and her
volunteers have found computers,
cell phones and plastic pink
flamingos in the river. This year,
volunteers also spotted a
refrigerator.
Elyssa Fuller, 11, said although
she absolutely hated cleaning her
room, she enjoyed picking up the
river.
“When people litter, it’s ruining
the environment,” she said. “That’s
why you come out here and put your
time into picking up the river. It
helps make the world a better
place.”
dhaynie@jg.net
Reported by: Marchelle McConnell
FOX WFFT TV Fort Wayne
Friday, February 19 2010
Monday Mayor Tom Henry spoke about his efforts to
improve the rivers in his state of the city address. The
Mayors River efforts are connected to a federal mandate
issues by the Environmental Protection Agency. The city
is required to improve the rivers by 2025. The city has
been working toward this for years. A city official says
the reason the mayor included the rivers in his speech
this year was to show his commitment to the mandatory
project.
Abigail Frost, a local clean river activist and founder
of Save Maumee, wants to see the city take more action.
Frost says “I see them bringing up the rivers as
movement and progression, yes. I eagerly anticipate what
the city has planned in addition to the mandatory EPA
regulated long term control plan.”
Frost says the city always has plans, but she wants to
see more hands on projects.
Frank Suarez, with the City Utilities and Public Works,
says “Right now we have the upper Healy interceptor
which is a pipe that 52 inch wide. It's going in on the
North side of Fort Wayne near DuPont and Leo Road, and
it's going to relieve the amount of overflow from storm
sewers.”
The city will start installing another sewer separation
system in two weeks at the intersection of Woodrow and
Vance.
Frost says the work the city is doing is progress, but
to meet their goal by 2025 more needs to be done now.
Reported by: Marchelle McConnell FOX Fort
Wayne News @ 10
Monday, Oct 19, 2009 @07:50pm
The study by Ball State University took place
over the past year. Ball state researchers found
pharmaceuticals in 10 streams in the Upper White
River watershed. Abigail Frost is a clean water
activist in Fort Wayne, and Founder of the Save
Maumee Organization. She says she's not
surprised by the study, because she's known of
the problem for years. “I was really bothered by
in 2008 when the first study came out.”
The
study by Ball State says 300 different
pharmaceutical drugs are passed into fresh water
through human waste. Water filtration plants are
not eliminating them before they reach our
drinking water. But that's not the only way
drugs are getting into streams. Frost says “A
year ago if you were to call one of the
pharmacies, they would tell you to flush
medications down the toilet to get rid of them.
But that's been improved because now they will
tell you to bring it to a sheriff's office to
get rid of it.”
So what was found in these
streams? The mood-altering drug lithium, dimethylxanthine, a byproduct of caffeine,
cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, and
acetaminophen. Frost says she doesn't know how
this problem will be solved. She encourages
people not to flush old medicines down the
toilet. Scientists don't know how traces of
pharmaceuticals could impact us. Ball state
researchers say pharmaceuticals pose potential
health risks to both humans and fresh water
animals.
Wallet Heads on an Incredible Journey
Reported by: Kristin Mazur FOX Fort Wayne
News @ 10
Thursday, Oct 8, 2009 @09:14pm
About a month ago Peter
Stockfish was at the Old Fort, volunteering his
time, and getting ready to reenact a battle.
“During the battle I was going to die and I
didn't want to land on anything” says Stockfish.
So in order to prepare, he emptied his pockets,
taking out his my wallet, car keys and pocket
knife. He placed his belongings in a building
inside the fort. But when the battle was over he
came back, started searching, and couldn't find
his wallet. His wallet was stolen and taken from
that building and two weeks later found in the
St. Mary’s river.
“We found Peter’s wallet” says
Abigail Frost, founder of the ‘Save Maumee’
organization. Frost was also volunteering at the
time, cleaning up the river. She recalls of the
wallet “it was in a pail, there was like a
5-gallon bucket pail that they brought with a
bunch of other garbage.” Unable to find
Stockfish, Frost called the local Veteran
Affairs office using a number she found in the
wallet. “I got a phone call Friday morning from
the VA rep in Huntington saying 'hey have you
lost your wallet? I received a call from a lady
who volunteers cleaning the river’” recalls
Stockfish. The wallet was still intact, still
containing his debit cards, license, insurance
cards and his VA slip “It saved me heartache
from trying to put my life back together by
putting everything back in my wallet” Stockfish
says. But a few things were missing: six
dollars, 15 to 20-dollars in foreign currency,
some coins and an AT&T phone card. It doesn't
seem like much compared to the credit cards,
insurance cards and license that weren't taken
but, according to Stockfish, it was the
sentimental stuff that was gone. The coins
missing were ones Stockfish got while serving
overseas. He says he earned them while serving.
He say's it was a hard lesson but it was
definitely learned.
Finding your inner activist and saving the
Maumee
The Communicator - IPFW
Written by Alysen Wade October 1, 2009
Activism, as the word implies, requires action.
This means real-live people working together to
accomplish a common goal. As young people, we
are so inundated by the myriad of social,
political and environmental problems that
acquiescence often seems the only tolerable
method of survival. This cycle of inactivity and
pessimistic reasoning of “the world is far too
big for me to have any affect,” becomes the
foundation for which we lead our lives. However,
a giant leap in overcoming apathy is arming
ourselves with knowledge and discovering
tangible solutions to fix immediate concerns in
our local community. One point of obvious
concern is the crisis of the rivers.
Pipe discharge, aging sewer systems, previously
unregulated dumping; PCB’s (man made chemicals),
high mercury levels, pesticides, E. coli, and an
infamous toxic landfill all contribute to our
impaired waterways. IPFW alumna, Abigail Frost
purchased riverfront real-estate in 2000 and has
since been gathering alarming details regarding
the problems facing our rivers. She has also
succeeded in forming a grassroots organization
aimed at educating as well as inciting the
public to take part in watershed restoration. A
private citizen who has devoted herself to the
cause, she firmly states: “I do not want to let
it go.”
After eight years of leading the community in
action, she says there are ways to fix this
problem. By keeping our local government and
corporate entities accountable; also by
riverbank clean-up and continued education,
clean rivers are not out of reach.
Abigail also urges students to take part in
revitalization activities by participating in
clean-up of the St. Joe River that runs directly
through the campus. “All you have to do is go
down there…” Frost says. Any little bit of
garbage removal will help by preventing
pollution from flowing downstream into the
Maumee and eventually the Great Lakes. By
forming a group that meets on a monthly basis,
students could coordinate with the missions of
Save Maumee Organization and combine their
energies to provide real and lasting solutions.
As an inspiration to those of us unwilling to
let life’s challenges inattentively spiral past,
Abigail Frost reminds us in the words of Ross
Perot, that “The activist is not the [one] who
says the river is dirty. The activist is the
[one] who cleans up the river.”
EXTRACTION FROM THE
COMMUNICATOR - October 6, 2009. Misquote:
"Because 85% of the rivers’ contaminates are
acquired at the headwaters that begin right here
in Fort Wayne"
True statements from Save Maumee: "Up to 80% of
a streams water quality is inherited at it's
headwaters. Fort Wayne contains about 80% of the
population in the Upper Maumee Watershed.
=======================================================
by Kristin Mazur, - Local FOX News @ 10
September 11, 2009
Abigail Frost likes to spend a lot of time by
the river, but her time spent there isn't a form
of leisure. Frost founded the “Save the Maumee
Grassroots Organization” after her family moved
into a house next to the river and was
astonished by what she found. The group is
dedicated to raising awareness to the pollution
problem taking over the city's three rivers.
“I was ready to dump a load of sand down here to
go swimming and obviously we can't do that” says
Frost.
Plastic bags, soda bottles,
concrete poured along the riverbank, even a gas
tank: those just some of the things we found
while walking along the Maumee River today.
Frost and I even came across two men’s
(different) shoes. Frost spotted a tire floating
in the river and without a second thought she's
in the water to retrieve it. Tires can breed up
to 500 mosquitoes every 4 days.
“The
Maumee is the largest and longest contributing
stream to the great lakes” says Frost.
80-percent of that stream water quality is
inherited from the headwaters of the Maumee.
“If it rains a tenth of an inch then the CSO,
the combined sewer overflow, discharges into the
river” she says. Twenty-one cities dump
into Fort Wayne Rivers before reaching the St.
Joe's, the river residents get their drinking
water from. There's also many downstream
drinking the water from the Maumee, places like
Defiance OH and Toledo.
One of the most
interesting things she’s found: a ‘Kiss” CD in
its original case and a purple plastic flamingo.
The group will hold their 2nd Annual
“Canoe-Clean UP” tomorrow September 12 from
noon-5PM. For more information and how you can
take part in the effort head to www.savemaumee.org or call (260)417-2500.
======================================================
Abigail Frost: a True Grassroots Activist
Founder of Save the Maumee Grassroots
Organization
In the year 2000, Abigail Frost began to notice
the stacks of garbage and junk that was floating
in the river in front of her home. She had lived
in many other parts of the country before and
had always been able to swim in the rivers, but
was soon to find out that that would not be
possible at her new residence.
The Maumee River in Fort Wayne, Indiana- along
with the St. Joseph and St. Mary's Rivers are
too polluted to swim in and because of their
trash-filled countenance they are really too
filthy to enjoy at all.
Abigail Frost began a mission back in 2000 to
find out what she could do to change all that
and has been at it since. She began her own
grassroots organization- Save the Maumee
Grassroots Organization - and has been an active
voice for the Three Rivers of Fort Wayne.
The Waynedale Green Alliance, highlights those
who are truly grassroots activists -those who
without fanfare or fame give mightily of
themselves for a great cause.
Abigail Frost is our pick for A Grassroots True
Activist Award. Recently we asked Abigail (or
Abby, as she likes to be called) to give us some
important information about the St. Mary's
River. Our interest in the St. Mary's is
community driven because Waynedale is surrounded
by the St. Mary's River. Citizens here are
interested in knowing what makes this river
flow. Here is what we found out from Abigail
Frost, founder of the Save the Maumee Grassroots
Organization.
"Historically, the St. Mary's River was teeming
with so many fish that canoes could easily be
filled with whitefish by fishermen using only
dip nets. During World War II the US Navy vessel
St. Mary's River was named after this northeast
Indiana river-section! Today does not paint a
teeming wildlife picture due to problems in our
watershed, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of
Mexico.
The St. Mary's River is approximately 100 miles
long and formed in southern Auglaize County in
western Ohio. It flows briefly west to Grand
Lake and then northwest into Waynedale, ending
in Fort Wayne.
The Three Rivers in Fort Wayne are actually the
St. Joe and St. Mary's joining to form one
river...the Maumee! Our rivers here are very
important because they flow into the largest
fresh water source in the world.
The Great Lakes Watershed and the Wabash
Watershed flow away from each other because
their tributaries flow in different directions
beginning in Eagle Marsh area between Fort Wayne
and Waynedale. Ultimately water flows into the
Mississippi & Gulf of Mexico west of Waynedale
and tributaries from the east flow into the
Great Lakes!
Fishermen still enjoy their sport, while
paddlers glide easily upstream in the weak
current of the St. Mary's. It is shallow and
warm enough for nature savvy enjoyment. Luck may
lead you to find the sweet fruit of the Paw Paw
on the riverbanks. Indiana (Hoosier) Bananas or
Paw Paws grow under the canopy of old growth
areas. It tastes like a mix between a mango,
banana and pineapple from the seedy sweet
middle.
Being a favorite native fruit to the area, it
was once up for Ohio adoption as their state
native fruit!
Unfortunately, St. Mary's is listed on the 303d
List of Impaired Water by the Environmental
Protection Agency. Sedimentation/erosion,
fertilizer, pesticides, household chemicals,
medication, E. Coli, low Dissolved Oxygen,
siltation, nutrients, ammonia and turbidity are
causing habitat alterations. Impaired uses for
the St. Mary's River and restrictions on fish
consumption are due to mercury and PCB's of
yesterday and today' industry. Heck, we thought
flooding in Waynedale was the worst problem for
residents!
Problems in our entire watershed should be a
major concern for citizens in Indiana. One
Person cannot undo problems that stem from being
in the heart of the rust belt of the 1920s, and
the loose enforcement of environmental laws,
however each individual can do their part to be
part of the solution. Tax payers want to improve
the economic, aesthetic and recreational value
to fully utilize rivers. The answers are basic
yet expensive, consequentially, this is
overlooked.
River restoration is a necessity not a luxury.
We depend on the services that healthy water
provides at an extremely fundamental level. This
is our water and your decision. For the sake of
millions of people, be part of the solution."
We, at the Waynedale Green Alliance would like
to thank Abigail for her informative piece
concerning the St. Mary's River here in Fort
Wayne.
We also are proud to issue our proclamation that
Abigail Frost is a Grassroots True Activist.
Getting no credit for responsibility
Frank Gray -
Trash awards
The Save the Maumee Grassroots
Organization held its fourth cleanup of the
Maumee River on Earth Day and has just
released an inventory of the trash that
nearly 200 volunteers helped pull out of the
river.
If there can be such a thing as awards
for trashing a river, here they are:
Largest piece of trash: A
7-foot-by-4-foot-by-2-foot piece of foam,
waterlogged, big enough that it took several
people to get it out.
Most contaminated: A TV set,
possibly with mercury and PCBs.
Most potential to cause West Nile:
Six tires, including a tractor tire 6 feet
high mired in the riverbed.
In all, the trash collected weighed 2
tons.
Frank Gray has held positions as a
reporter and editor at The Journal Gazette
since 1982, and has been writing a column on
local issues since 1998.
fgray@jg.net.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted on Thu, Apr. 12, 2007
River devotee banks on helpers for cleanup
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Laura J. Gardner/The Journal Gazette
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Abigail Frost picks up trash around the
Maumee River on Tuesday afternoon. She
invites anyone that wants to keep the
rivers clean to join her April 22.
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If you’re curious about the state of Fort Wayne’s rivers, all
you have to do is look for the signs.
The signs aren’t cryptic. They’re white with brownish
lettering, warning people that it’s not a good idea to swim in
the water and that exposure to the water at times can pose a
health hazard.
Some people fish in the river, but Abigail Frost says she’s
never seen anyone catch anything but carp. It raises the
question. If you caught, say, a walleye in one of the city’s
rivers, would you eat it?
Just take a canoe trip down the Maumee from Hosey Dam on
Anthony Boulevard to Riverhaven, a distance of a little more
than two miles. You’ll see more than 100 pipes from industries
and septic fields pouring stuff into the river, Frost says.
What’s coming out of the pipes? Who knows.
Then there’s the trash.
It’s sad, Frost says. The rivers have the potential to be
beautiful, but the city has turned its back on them, literally.
All that faces the rivers are the backs of garages and body
shops and other businesses.
Few people clean the rivers, either. Frost says she asked
about using community service workers to pick the trash off the
banks and was told that officials don’t have insurance to cover
offenders doing that sort of work.
Just think what a difference it would make, Frost says, if
everyone would pick up one bag of trash from the Maumee, which
she says is the most clogged with junk because the city’s other
rivers flow into it.
But no one does that.
Except, that is, Save Maumee Grassroots Organization.
Save Maumee is a tiny organization. It has one member, Frost.
Maybe two if you count her friend Ryan Bailey.
The two can’t do a lot to halt the pollution of the city’s
rivers, Frost says. They can’t stop sewer overflows after heavy
rains or stop industrial pollution or stop the septic fields
draining untreated water, though she has put together a
presentation discussing all the pollutants that go into the
rivers in Fort Wayne.
But she can pick up the trash. So once a year, on Earth Day,
Frost tries to round up volunteers and joins them on a one-mile
stretch of the Maumee, from Hosey Dam on Anthony Boulevard to
the Ravine, a home-made BMX bike track, to pick up trash.
It’s a meaningful effort, doing something instead of talking
about what needs to be done.
Last year, the first year the organization tried it, about 60
people showed up and scoured the banks of the river, picking up
about a ton of trash, Frost says. Junk ranged from the typical
refuse to a car bumper, computers and a 30-foot square plastic
tarp.
Frost will be organizing the same cleanup this year, from 11
a.m. to 4 p.m. April 22. She’s asking volunteers to bring muddin’
shoes, garbage bags and gloves and show up on Niagara Drive,
where she lives, to join the effort. She will provide some
gloves and bags until supplies are gone.
Frost has also received donations of seed for plants
recommended by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Part
of the day’s events will involve seeding the banks. To prevent
the seed from being washed away, she got a discount on some soil
erosion control mats to hold seeds in place.
The grass, a mix of Indian grass and typical lawn varieties,
has roots that reach as deep as 10 feet when mature, which keeps
the grass strong in droughts and keeps it in place during
floods. The grass helps prevent erosion and filters out
pollutants, Frost says.
Frost used the same seed last year, and it grew well before
being washed away by floods. She hopes the anti-erosion mats,
which will eventually decompose, will prevent that from
happening again this year.
She isn’t sure how many volunteers will show up this year,
but she recruits people through the year, distributes flyers and
hopes people show up.
That’s about all she can do, operate on faith.
“I have no reputation,” she says. “I’m a small organization.
It’s like no one cares. But people do care. They just don’t
know” that they can make a difference.
You can see a Web site of Frost’s organization at
www.savemaumee.org.
You don’t have to make reservations for the April 22 cleanup,
though. Just show up if you’re so inclined.
Frank Gray has held positions as a
reporter and editor at The Journal Gazette since 1982,
and has been writing a column on local issues since
1998. His column is published Sunday, Tuesday and
Thursday. He can be reached by phone at 461-8376; by fax
at 461-8893; or e-mail at
fgray@jg.net. To discuss this column or others he
has written recently, go to the Frank Gray topic of “The
Board” at
www.journalgazette.net.
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