Stops in New Haven, Antwerp & Defiance
Maumee River at Riverside Park
The Save Maumee 141 mile, nine day, two state Canoe Trip is set to launch on April 19th. The group will set off from Junk Ditch & Continental Divide in Fort Wayne, IN and will end at International Park in Toledo, OH on April 26th.
The group will be making a stop in New Haven, IN at the New Haven North River Nature Preserve on April 19th.
Then on April 20th they make a stop at Blue Cast Springs in Woodburn, IN.
On April 21st, the crew will bank at Riverside Park in Antwerp, OH before moving along up north and east to there final destination in Toledo.
The public is invited to Earth Week celebrations along on Maumee’s riverbanks in Indiana and Ohio. Activities and programs will occur at nine locations throughout Save Maumee’s Canoe Trip. Their trip will start at the Mississippi and Great Lakes continental divide in Indiana and end nine days later at the outlet into Maumee Bay’s Lake Erie, in Toledo Ohio at International Park.
Activities will include GIS mapping of tiles that are not mapped on any State or County systems, water testing, garbage removal, plantings, bird and plant identification, understanding your water footprint, and lead discussions in benefits of raingardens, native vegetation, CAFO’s and animal contribution to water quality, Clean Water Act and water policy issues. These are issues the public have always wanted to know more about.
Starting April 18, Save Maumee will start paddling from the area where Asian Carp and other invasive species have the ability to move from the Mississippi watershed to the Great Lakes. The canoe trip will end nine days later at Maumee Bay in the Western Lake Erie Basin. The group will meet up on the shore of the Maumee to participate in activities in Fort Wayne, New Haven, Defiance, OH on Earth DAY, Mary Jane Thurston State Park, and International Park in Toledo, Ohio among other locations.
This will be a nine day canoe trip of research and education about our invaluable rivers and streams. The groups are looking to investigate the many problems facing surface water, what could make it better, bring together all these groups, and work together to make things better for our waters. Simultaneously padding down the Maumee and upstream against entrenched powers and behaviors. Environmental degradation is not inevitable, even in Indiana and Ohio, with all groups working together.
Save Maumee Grassroots Organization, Partnership for Water Quality, Sustainable Indiana 2016, Upper Maumee Watershed Partnership, City of Defiance, Tri-State Watershed Alliance, Citizens Action Coalition & Toledo Planning Commission will provide riverside activities along the Maumee River throughout the nine day trip. They will start at the Mississippi and Great Lakes watershed divide, and end up in Maumee Bay, Lake Erie in Toledo, OH.
Along the way, Save Maumee will be using GPS equipment to locate tiles and drains, identify potential restoration areas and historic garbage and put them on a map… in real time. The group will also help to identify potential areas for boat ramps. All of which do not appear on current maps.
The Upper Maumee Watershed Management Plan is due to be released to the public in April 2014. Save Maumee would like to highlight the plans and how you can help improve our waters all the way to Lake Erie.
Among other goals, the canoe trip will highlight Earth Week and work to change the 2009 Army Corps of Engineers ruling of native vegetation removal along rivers and streams. They will report our findings and work to change public policy of ACE. The Corps currently follow “Guidelines for landscape planting and vegetation management at levees, floodwalls, embankment dams and appurtenant structures” (ETL 1110-2-571). Numerous government agencies and studies cite the importance of vegetation. The Army Corps of Engineers appear to be the only agency who does not recognize or make use of these studies. ACE requires municipalities to follow their guidelines, but Fort Wayne alone has 10.5 miles of levees next to our rivers.
Save Maumee Grassroots Organization’s Director and Founder Abigail King explains, “We want to make sure the public is aware of the damage of natural areas due to the requirement of removing all vegetation 15 feet on either side of all levees, for inspection purposes alone. The Maumee is the largest contributing watershed to the Great Lakes and remains on the EPA’s 303 (d) list of impaired streams. This is an ecologically sensitive area and should not have native plants indiscriminately removed. Numerous government agencies and studies cite vegetation buffer areas as beneficial and necessary.”
For more information about this event, please contact Abigail King, Vice Chair and Founder, Save Maumee Grassroots Organization at 260-417-2500.
