Lehigh Canal and River (31-Aug-2015)

Another long trip from Sand Island to Canal Park and back. In total two bags of recyclables, two bags of trash, a broken lawn chair, a headless plastic deer, a child size sled and a purple tote were taken off of the canal and river today. Was on the water from around 12:30 this afternoon to 7:30 tonight. This paddle was not supposed to take as long as the last time I completed it.

The day started off as usual, empty boat bags ready and I was ready to get out on the water. When I put on the canal I paddled a little bit down stream to shoreline I haven't cleaned yet. Found some bottles underneath overhanging branches and went in, grabbed them and started backpaddling out....

I felt the back of the boat hit a branch behind me and I thought nothing of it. When I passed the branch, I was suddenly surrounded by a cloud of vespid/paper wasps. I kept backpaddling, now much faster and prepared to be stung. Luckily the majority of the wasps flew back to the nest when I got far enough away and I didn't receive a single sting. Remember this if you ever paddle by low branches. I have seen vespid wasp nests over water like this before, but never had such a close call.

In my mind the canal was going to be a breeze and I was just going to paddle through and get to the river. It did not work out that way. I kept finding pockets of trash that were missed on the previous two trips though. This little pile I understand, it was pretty well hidden.

For this pile I must have had my eyes closed when I passed it the last time. It was very visible from the middle of the canal and there was a lot packed in there and to the left of this photo.

This time I also pulled both recyclables and garbage off the bottom in the shallow stretches. That's where the road cone in the bag came from.

If someone told me I was going to see giraffes on the canal, I would have just given them a disproving stare. 

Did Hook finally kill Peter Pan? Who is Jake? I did think it was funny how the designer of this ball used the fill hole as an eye for the crocodile. 

This was the haul from the canal. Once again the recyclables from the canal took up more space than I wanted them to for the way back. The garbage was discarded in the proper receptacle on the way to the river.

This little critter is a turtle leech. For the most part they do not bother humans, unless the human is bothered just by the sight of them. Most wild turtles have these leeches on them and I often find these leeches on smooth trash items that I pull out of muddy areas. It could be that they think the surface resembles a turtleshell or they might just like hanging out on smooth items. This one came off of the road cone.

Back to the river yet again.

Turtles aren't seen as much on the river as they are on the canal. This is just a Painted Turtle, I have posted photos of them before. I just liked seeing this one on the river for some reason.

On who's orders should I not disturb this? I just wonder what the average person on a weekend paddling the river would think of an item like this. I could see someone finding this, then finding a musky jaw on the bank and thinking that the government released some kind of genetically altered fish monster. My guess is that there was some kind of plant in it originally. It would have been nice if it was labeled. Also, if this is biodegradable what is it made of? 

Someone lost their face heart. It is now in the garbage.

If this didn't smell I would have brought it home. Coupled with the mask I found earlier this summer it would have made and excellent halloween yard decoration and both items would have got at least one more use. However it did smell, worse than most discarded items found on the river, so it went directly into the trash.

Took a different channel than normal and stopped at a different island. It was past six by this point and I was wondering if I would make it off the river before dark. Also didn't want to get back in the kayak because sitting in it for so long gets extremely uncomfortable.

Stopped for the purple bin and wasn't going to stop again. I really wasn't, but I got to an area that years ago had a great rope swing. The tree is still there and there is a small silt beach. It was one of my favorite places on this section of river and it was trashed. Someone must have had a party there over the weekend. Beer cans everywhere, meat and buns in bags, condiments barely used all thrown throughout the area. I took my time and took nearly everything. I won't mention what I left behind, it was things that shouldn't ever be let by the river or anywhere except a garbage can. I took no pictures of the mess because I didn't want to see it again. I really loved that place and I loved the rope swing.

The only thing I don't like about this photo is that this can is really close to the river. I just imagined people taking these items and throwing them back in. Why would I imagine this? Because that's what people seem to do. The garbage can itself is chained to the telephone pole. The parks people know what happens. Not chained down, ends up in the river. I just hope they do make it to the landfill, it wasn't an easy balancing act to get them to this point and I don't want to do it again further down stream. 

Lehigh River (30-August-2015)

Exhausted before I left I decided to do a short paddle in which I have recently cleaned up most of the shore line. I didn't know what the river height was going to be like today and I don't keep track of the release weekends. If you are not familiar with the phrase release weekend, it means that there are scheduled water releases from Francis E. Walter dam to raise the Lehigh for recreational purposes. This weekend must not have been one and the river was lower than my last paddle down. This meant it was safer for me to get out at more places that I couldn't cover before. 

This was from a small island stop. Everything there was scattered throughout many debris piles and there were only plastics items here and there.

The truck cap has migrated down stream. I don't know whether someone moved it or if it had just become dislodged and made its own way.

Not surprising, another whitewater splashing bucket.

This section was much less severe than last time. Not much water in my boat, whereas last time I got soaked.

I knew the bank in this section was full of trash. It is not accessible by foot and this was one of the areas where even near shore the water was too high and fast to stop before. Sadly I had to leave some bottles that I found here. I could see them, but they were in really thick brush and getting them would have caused more damage than good.

A plastic leg, a whitewater paddle and water gun were the best finds of the day and all around the same area.

Started filling up about half way through the trip.

Two more whitewater splashing buckets. Way too many of them and it is clear who is the cause. If this annoys you as much as it annoys me, please contact the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Tell them you do not want organizations who make money off of our shared resource polluting our waters.

More debris piles, more plastics.

Even more debris piles and even more plastics.

This photo is not set up and is exactly how I found it. This is a hatchling snapping turtle that has just recently emerged from its egg. If you look closely at its nose you can see a little white spec. That is an egg tooth and is what turtles use to cut through their egg shell when they are ready. The egg tooth falls off not long after the hatching makes it out of its egg. It's really nice that one of the first things this turtle got to see is a nice styrofoam cup floating at the waters edge.

Nearing the end of the paddle.

I think this was a fine amount for the time I was out there. I used a different takeout point and luckily there was a dumpster for the non-recyclables on the left.

PEEC Bioblitz

Trash was not the objective today, but I still managed to collect a small pile. The Pocono Environmental Education Center held a bioblitz, so my goal was to find as many reptile and amphibian species as possible. Five different teams, at three different times, covered multiple locations to try and record all of the species they could find. This included everything, not just herps, and if it was something that the team members could not identify, a picture was taken in hopes it could be identified down to species at a later date. I was on the 12 to 7 shift this afternoon and the team I was on scoured two locations. Like other posts with reptiles and amphibians I can not give out these locations. Most of what I found today is common, but I do believe that species in general are safer if people do not know where to find them.  

These are some of the volunteers from the best team of the day! From left to right John, Lisa and Chris. These particular volunteers were working on plants and were very good at what they were there for. I even learned a little about a couple species and for the most part I have very little interest in plants.

This was one of the first finds of the day. I have to admit that neither I nor my team members found it. I heard someone scream snake and started running towards them. I immediately asked what color it was when I got close and when they told me green, well, I couldn't believe it. Before today I had never seen a wild live Smooth Green Snake. I have searched for years just to see and photograph one and I have only found dead ones before. It is a protected species in PA, mostly because there is not much known about their current population status. However, it does seem to be a species that has declined over the years. I have heard many stories of them being very common in certain areas where now it is impossible to find a single individual. After population studies are completed, it is possible that this species could be listed as threatened or endangered in our state. For me this was the greatest herp I have seen all year.

A Two-Lined Salamander, a very common stream denizen. As you can see they do not like being photographed and generally don't stay in the same place for more than a second when found.

The most abundant herp species of the day. The Green Frog. This is an extremely common species throughout Eastern PA.

The Pickerel Frog is also common, but generally isn't seen as much as the green. I know I have posted a few of these already on this blog. Same with a few of these species. 

This is a Red Eft, the juvenile life stage of the Red-Spotted newt. They spend multiple years of their lives in this terrestrial stage, then find a water source where they will go through physical changes, like color and tail shape. They will then spend the rest of their lives as aquatic adults.

The only amphibian that can be found above the arctic circle is this species, the Wood Frog. In early spring I have found adults frozen in ice in ponds. One of which I broke the ice around it, freed it from its icy surroundings and it hopped away, very slowly, but it was fine.

An American Toad. Lots of toadlets were out today. Always watch your step while hiking. These can easily meet the bottom of your shoe and not have a good day if you don't pay attention.

One of our tiniest frogs is the Spring Peeper. If you can see this one click on the photo to enlarge it then take a look. It is around the center.

This is a Dusky Salamander. I am horrible at telling the difference between adults of two different species of Duskys we have in this area. I believe this one is a Northern, but there is a possibility it is a Mountain. I should be able to tell the difference between the two by now, but all Dusky adults look the same to me.

I would like to say thank you to the participants in my team, John, Lisa and Chris, who gave me permission to post this group photo and thank you to all of the bioblitz participants today. It is important that these types of surveys are conducted so we know what species are in specific areas, at a specific location within that area and at a specific time. This is the second bioblitz that PEEC has conducted and todays data can be compared to the last one that took place in 2010. I would like to add that PEEC has some pretty cool facilities, nice hiking trails and they do have public programs on a regular basis. You can check out their web-site at peec.org.

I hope you have enjoyed this small break from mostly trash covered posts, I should be back out collecting more junk tomorrow. There is always more to pick up!

Two Weeks of Trash

This is the river trash from the past two weeks. I had to sort it today and take it to the recycling drop off. I took it a bit farther this time, not only to see how much in numbers was there, but also to get an idea of the break down of the most frequently littered items.

The break down was as follows: Water bottles - 539, Aluminum cans - 275, Soda bottles - 198, Gatorade bottles - 95, Half and One Gallon jugs - 20, Buckets - 7, Plastic bottles (not water, soda or gatorade) - 178. That makes 1,312 total recyclable items removed from our rivers in the past two weeks. I there was also an entire bag on non-recyclables mixed in with these items.

Tomorrow I probably not be out collecting trash at all. I will be helping at a Bioblitz and it will take up most of the day. If you have not heard of a Bioblitz before it is an event where qualified individuals identify as many species as possible in a defined search area. So there are generally experts on plants, birds, herps, insects and mammals that can sight id most species encountered. For insects, generally specimens are collected and later identified in a lab because of their vast diversity. I will be helping with reptiles and amphibians. This particular event runs for 24 hours, I am only helping with one of the three time slots.

Fire Tower Road Revisited (28-Aug-2015)

Took a break from the rivers today. Penny and I went back to Fire Tower Rd. to see how the vernal pool was looking and if there was any more tubing that I missed. Well that's why I was there, Penny just went along to smell things and beg for treats.

The pool was dry and made it simple to check to see if I missed anything earlier in the summer. I did. There was some rubber pieces and some of the smaller tubing.

Just a couple pieces. Put them in my pack and went walking on collecting recyclables off the trailside.

Mostly just walking with the dog.

This was nice. Not only was the can jammed onto the stick, but is was also filled with mud and rocks.

The reason the roads name is Fire Tower.

The fence needs some work and the wooden steps look to be rotted out in some places. The DCNR forestry division should probably do something about the fence. Cleaned up the recyclables from what looked like trash from a party. I only had one bag so I left the non-recyclables for another time or for someone else to pick up. 

Found a small pool that still had water in it, oh yeah and an old mattress. Why do people find wetland areas to discard their stuff in? Next time I go up I may try to pull that out.

The long strait road back to the car. Checked on the pool, cleaned it up a bit more and cleaned up some recyclables. Did not do a lot this morning, but it was still something and Penny seemed to enjoy it.