4th Annual Tellico River Clean-up Day

by Gary Parsons, Director of Public Relations
and Stefan Roth, Vice President

On March 8, 2003 the annual clean-up along the Tellico River was held. Crews from Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, Trout Unlimited, and other groups including hiking and canoeing clubs fanned out from the Upper Tellico OHV Area in North Carolina to almost the ranger station in Tennessee picking up trash consisting of the usual bottles, cans, diapers, clothes, vehicle parts, batteries, and other assorted rubbish thrown out by uncaring individuals. The Forest Service from both the Tennessee and North Carolina sides of the river provided support by handing out garbage bags to the volunteers and hauling off the massive amounts of garbage collected.

Information from Mary Jane Burnette from the Tellico Ranger District of the Cherokee National Forest states that there were 1,110 man hours of work contributed for the Tennessee side with 300 or so bags of trash collected with a combined weight of a whopping 1.6 tons. Larry Fox from the Tusquitee Ranger District of the Forest Service on the North Carolina side states that 125 bags of garbage plus another sizable volume of things that was not bagable weighed in about 2100 pounds. Total volunteer work hours for the North Carolina side were approximately 390 hours.

Southern was well represented with approximately 80 members representing 13 different clubs. Clubs in attendance were:

East Tennessee Four Wheel Drive Club
Volunteer Four Wheel Drive Club
Heart of Dixie Four Wheel Drive Club
Georgia Cruisers
TNT 4WD
Plum Crazzed Jeep Club
Central Alabama OHV Society
Southern Jeeps
Rattle Rock Four Wheel Drive Club
Rock Solid Jeep Club
Renegade Four Wheel Drive Club
Atomic City Four Wheel Drive Club
Scenic City Four Wheel Drive Club

Here are the areas where members of Southern 4WD Association (all the 4WD clubs) picked up trash:

North Carolina:

• Trail 1 from state line past bridge all the way to start of trail 2.
• Trail 2 from trail 1 to the gravel road in Tennessee (what we refer to as bottom of trail 2).
• Trail 5 from start at trail 1 to Rough Crossing and the camping areas on other side of Rough Crossing.
• Trail 6 from start to the big flat area in the trail where it was obvious people like to have lunch. About 3-4 miles of trail.
• On trail 11, some trash pickup was done on Guardrail and Helicopter Pad.
• One of the clubs picked up starting at the intersection of trails 4 and 11 through guard rail on trail 11.
• Trash picked up at the area around Fain Ford.
• Trash picked up on trail 9 at area all around Slick Rock.

Tennessee:

• Starting at state line, we picked up trash along the road and the river at least 6 miles down river, including the campsites along the road. Some of our members may have gone further than this, but I am not sure how far.
• On the gravel road that starts near Big Oak Cove campground, starting at the pavement, we picked up trash for 1.5 miles.

We appreciate everyone who took the time on a Saturday to participate in this effort. If your club was there and not listed above please let us know. We also appreciate the effort and support of rangers Larry Fox and Mary Jane Burnette and other rangers from both Tennessee and North Carolina.

Just a reminder that while trail riding, camping or any outdoor activity, pack in what you pack out and do not throw trash on the ground. If you find something thrown out, pack that out as well. If you are a smoker, use an empty 35 mm film canister to pack the cigarette butts out. They are litter also. Just a side note a few steel beer cans were found which indicates that some of the trash found was pushing 20 years old. Hope to see you next year