Chattanooga's Suck Creek Clean Up

Please come and help us clean up Suck Creek this coming... Nov. 12th (Saturday) from 9 - 12. We need all the help we can get. The forestry service needs the help desperately and currently the area is difficult to enjoy because of excess trash. Last year we cleaned up a significant portion of the gorge in a single day! Hopefully we can do the same again this year. Some people will be in the gorge cleaning and others will be roadside. Go where you feel most comfortable. The gorge is steepand slick in some areas so please be careful. Directions: From Chattanooga, take 27 North, cross the Tennessee River. After about a mile, exit onto 127 North(Signal Mtn. Exit), and follow it to the base of Signal Mountain. Turn left on Suck Creek Road (27 West), follow it for four miles, cross over a bridge, and continue up the canyon. You will see the cars parked along the sides of the road as you enter into the canyon. Find a group of people you want to join and have at it! The forestry service will have two trucks with winches to pull large or heavy objects out of the gorge. Heavy duty trash bags will be supplied. Feel free to bring your work gloves, we have approx 40 pairs of work gloves and 100 thin rubber gloves. If you have any questions feel free to contact: ben@steepcreeks.com If you would like to post a flyer at your place of business, club, church, etc. please email me and I'll send a copy of the flyer to your email account. Comments or Suggestions Thanks to North Chickamauga Creek Conservancy Tennessee River Gorge Trust Tennessee Valley Canoe Club Steve Hankins Terri Chapin(GPS) and Tim Williams(Baylor) for helping organize and promote the clean up.

Here's some info on previous clean ups!

Chattanooga's Suck Creek Clean Up

Suck Creek is an area resource to Chattanooga that packs an excellent roadside obstacle course for Chattanooga Creekboaters. It runs frequently, takes very little time to kayak the gauntlet, and offers great scenery, most of the time.. Here are some links to what the area offers to Chattanooga creekers: Suck Creek South Suck Creek Unfortunately lots of people traveling between Chattanooga and Sequatchie Valley don't see it the same. To compound the problem, the area dump doesn't accept household trash, tires, building supplies, etc. People then end up dumping "tons" of garbage into their local gorge

Treasures that can be found in this fairyland include hypodermic needles, diapers, glass, windshields, propane tanks, hundreds and hundreds of tires, profalactics, car doors, PVC, shingles(tons), road construction debree-actually forming a rapid, hundreds of old gas tanks(also not accepted at the area local dump), and anything else you can imagine caught between gravity and the ground.

Ryan and Ben decided to get some volunteers together and clean. Here are a few details from the event and what went in to make it a success. 1. Chattanooga Times Free Press: Local news paper came out before the event and met with (Paul Shoun-TVCC, Kelly Liles-Outdoor Chattanooga, Jamie Casson-Rock Creek, Ted Hayes-local creeker, Ryan and Ben. They ran an article describing the gorge and requesting volunters to help with the event. 2. Flyers put up at local outdoor retailer (Rock Creek) 3. Notified Chattanooga Bicycle Club, got an article in their newspaper asking bikers to cover the road while paddlers scrambled the gorge. 4. Notified Tennessee Valley Canoe Club - provided volunteers 5. Notified area bicycle shops 6. Notified area hiking club 7. Notified local highschool(Baylor) seeking volunteers - Ron Stewart came and blessed everyone with his presence. 8. When we realized we were getting a big crowd we called the city asking for a dumpster or something to haul all the trash away after the event was over - done - They provided us with a huge tandem axel trailer with a long dumpster on top. Trash went into the trailer and was hauled off to the Hamilton County Dump. Much appreciation for their help. Tires were piled to the side of the trailer and hauled off along with the gas tanks. Results: Approx 75 volunteers showed up at the time of the clean up. Many more came later in the day and cleaned on their own and some came the day after since the dumpster was left for 3 days. The dumpster was filled, spilling over the edge (it was sitting along the side of the road for 2 days after being filled so that all the local litterbugs could see that someone else came and took care of their mess. Approx 50 tires were piled next to the dumpster and hauled away. Gas tanks that were hauled out during the clean up(some were carried out of the gorge on a previous clean up) were all taken to an appropriate dump.

If you want to help make a difference in Suck Creek, please contact: 1) Brian Haddock - Forest Technician of Prentice Cooper State Forest 423-658-5551 2) Jim Lane - Forester of Pretice Cooper State Forest 423-634-3091 / 423-658-5551

This will now be an annual event here in Chattanooga. Hopefully the idea will spread and motivate others to get started cleaning their own local drainages if they have not already.

Chattanooga's Cain Creek Clean Up

Results: Overflowing Truck and Trailer filled with trash and debree Several individuals worked on the large pile along the right side of the trail going to the put in. They were able to remove half of the pile(deep freezer and 30-40 large TVA clean-up bags). Another group covered the roadside trash from Tom's Cabin to the put in. Locals notice and were appreciative of the effort. Directions: From Hwy 27, take the North Chickamauga Dam exit (Hwy 153 South) this road eventually becomes Old Daton. Go to second stop light, go left on Montlake, go to top of the mountian, left on Poe Road(evacuation route sign), go 6.2 miles, left on Grant, go round the bend and left on Barker Camp. Approx. 1 mile on right, cross cooper creek, first mailbox on the right. Get together Friday night at Tom's cabin for folks who want to make a weekend out of the event. Campfire, music, goodtimes as usual. The clean up is going to focus on the put in road. Lots of boaters tend to drive fast since the road is pretty easy to do this on. Hopefully a clean up will give reason for locals to appreciate us being their neighbors. Time: 10:00 A.M. Saturday Feburary, 26th. Meet at Tom's Cabin For questions or comments email: Tom : b2monty@yahoo.com Additional Info on Cain Creek