Come to our Open-Non-House!

Plant trees, seed, plant plugs, install erosion control mats and remove garbage on the banks of the Maumee when you have an hour or five to spare, rally for clean water, support your local waterways...and have fun doing it with live entertainment!

• Cleansing the riverbanks of garbage 11am - 4pm  - You won't be able to miss it meet us at the big tent!
   

• GRATEFUL GROOVE a Grateful Dead cover-band will be playing for Earth Day 2012! YEAH!
   

• Soaring Hawk Raptor Rehab will present a range of raptors!
   

• Planting native riparian seed/trees/plugs and raspberries this year
   

• Installing erosion control mats. 
   

• River Education all around! Education material provided...
   

• Jain Young – Herb Specialist -  “Edible Herb Walk” will show what you are missing on your plate at home – native home grown food grown right here!
   

• Children's Environmental Story Time & Face Painting
   

• Reverse Osmosis Water - the cleanest of the clean - will be served to you this year! Thanks to Kara & Jerrod Tobias
   

• Funny what we find on the riverbanks! So lets find something funny?
  
  -Largest Trash– Most Likely to Contaminate Our River Trash– Funniest Trash– Weirdest Trash- Most Interesting Find- Most Useful Trash - BEST Little River Hero (1 boy – 1 girl) - Hardest Worker River Hero - Largest Unified Group of River Heroes -
   

LOCATION:
On the corner of N. Anthony Blvd. and Niagara Dr.

We will meet here:

Don't just dream about clean rivers...Come out & help rain or shine....if not you....WHO?

In your yard Cottonwoods and Mulberry may be unwanted, but these "trash" trees are beneficial to riverbanks. 

What we did in 2011 CLICK HERE for longer VIDEO

2011 FUNNY VIDEO

What we did in 2010 CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO- Part 1 of 6!

What we did in 2009 CLICK HERE!

Pictures from  2008 CLICK HERE!

Pictures from 2007 CLICK HERE!

Over the years musical talent has included:
Dave P., Grateful Groove, Will Brown from the Afrodiasiacs, Beyond all Rational Thought, Carol Dean and Les Lesser, The Wilderness, Anthony Garr, Sounds of Saturn

Cleaning up your dog's poop on a walk will also improve water quality, so don't forget your plastic baggie when you grab Rover's leash! - Dogs are not prohibited, but not encouraged at the event...

NEED DONATED FOR EARTH DAY  ~

• Someone who will commit to letting us use their copy machines, laminators, printers to make pre-approved copies of related Save Maumee material that will be distributed to the public. 
• Earth Friendly garbage bags this year? Maybe!
• Suggestions for the event include recycling facility - a possibility, but most of the rubbish is river dirt, muddy - unsure to date
• Native seed, shrubs, grasses, bushes, trees and soil
• More Mats + More Seed = More $.  Bring your wallet, but this is a FREE event!
• REUSABLE water bottles - prefer stainless steel or plastic that is NOT  Bisphenol A (BPA)  - we want BPA-free plastic
• Small transportation vehicle for volunteers or garbage.

  All money from the previous year goes to erosion control mats and purchase of more seed/trees/plugs for next year
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Updates from 2011 Earth Day -

The Lineup 

Sounds of Saturn & The Wilderness - our groovy live/local entertainment!

11AM - Sign in at the Information Table and go for a walk, wonder what all the buildings contain around your waterways, see it for yourself, notice the beauty in your surroundings.
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11:30AM - Judith Nastally ~ Neuhouser Nursery Native Plants & discussed specifics about the plants we installed!

NOON - Dr. I.C. Coldwater talked about local water issues upstream and downstream.

NOON REMOTE SITE VOLUNTEERS LEAVE for large scale measured clean-up
- BIG BURLEY PEOPLE and helpful hands – Bring your truck, shovel and pull chains and cameras ~
- If you want to make a difference this is IT!
- YOU HAVE the time it takes to remove one-and-one-half hours worth of trash from our rivers…GO
- RETURN TIME 1:45….BIG BURLEY PEOPLE and helpful hands RETURN to Niagara Drive for MEDIA BLITZ @ 1:45PM

1PM ~ Bob Dispenza from Allen County Parks spoke on energy and water conservation and demonstration of a car conversion battery pulse and glide driving!

1:45PM ~ MEDIA BLITZ…calling all media and river lovers! Bring your homemade sign for our media blitz and we need your help. Have a good time with it! A MUST SEE! You will laugh. Find our sign making area by the face painting.
Here is our funny video we made!

2:30PM~ Soarin’ Hawk Raptor Rehab presents native raptors in the area ~ SSSHHH WE NEED TO BE QUIET it disturbs these wild raptors of prey.

3:00PM ~ Environmental Children’s Story Time. Written by Save Maumee’s Earth Literacy Master ~  Bruce Allen

3:30PM ~ Save Maumee STOMP - YOU planted it! We have to make sure it is secured into the ground! The river raises and falls quickly because all the trees have been removed and replaced with large stones. STOMP the soil around the plants and burry the seeds with your pressure. WATCH OUT for new growing life and don’t STOMP that!

What are all these seeds/plants/trees we are planting all day?
Joe Pye Weed, Prairie Cord Grass, Common Milk Weed, Tall Ironweed, Bidens, Switchgrass, Yellow & Gray Headed Coneflower, Monarda, Rosinweed, Spiderwort, Big Blue Stem, Cup Plant, Rice Cut Grass, Virginia & Canada Wild Rye, Prairie Dock, Prairie Dropseed, Mountain Mint, New England Aster, Yarrow, Lemon Queen, Grey Goldenrod, Dogwood Berries, Black Eyed Susan, Evening Primrose, Fox Glove, Nodding Onion and RASPBERRY BUSHES.

What Trees are we planting today? 210 Hazelnut, 60 Burr Oak, 40 River Birch, 40 White Swamp Oak, 28 White Oak, 20 Flower Dogwood, 20 Butterfly Bushes, 10 Tulip Poplars, 8 Red Oak, 6 Red Maple – A total of 442 TREES!

What are the plant plugs? $1,000 worth of pre-grown plants include – 245 Carex lacustris, 147 Glyceria strata, 147 Heliopsis Helianthoides, 98 Hystrix patula, 98 Carex muskingumensis, 3 Silphium perfoliatum, 3 Elymus villosus!

What else throughout The Day?

MASSIVE seed planting for everyone and 4,500 sq. ft. of erosion control mats installed! Want to know what about the plants? Come to the 11:30 explanation of each plant by Judith Nastally! All seed and chaff weighed approximately 150lbs.
Largest Save Maumee erosion control project to date - 4,500 sq. ft of GeoJute (coconut mesh) will be installed over native DNR approved seed blend and completely disintegrate in 4 years, leaving a nice mesh of grasses.

Make a Sign - supplies are limited or BYO sign & use it at 1:45-TELL US HOW YOU LOVE MOTHER EARTH!

• Bag Monster makes his debut at Save Maumee’s Earth Day

• Face Painting

• Andy’s Horse Tours and Rentals - we couldn’t get a big enough truck with a hitch to transport on a Sunday and it was going to cost $400 for transportation costs~ BOO but we love our friends & see you next year!

• Chuck & Birds ~ LOCAL grown food served to you on the riverbanks! 11:30-1

• Sports & Spirits on Anthony Blvd. serving 20 pizzas at 3pm

• Health Food Shoppe - "healthy" chips and energy bars

• Old Crown Roasters Coffee

• REUSABLE water bottles from ACRES Land Trust & US ARMY & Upper Maumee Watershed Partnership. – DON”T BUY BOTTLED WATER

• Pick up lots of educational material and read it later

PRE 2011 Save Maumee Stats:
Because YOU: REMOVED 9 tons of GARBAGE from the Rivers and Riverbanks of the Fort Wayne Area -PLANTED over 1,000 trees 800 lbs of DNR approved native riparian seed installed over 10,000 sq ft of erosion control mats planted 50 native fruit trees, 50 raspberry/blackberry bushes, harvested 56 lbs worth of seed and raised awareness SUCCESSFULLY! – Planning to plant several hundred pounds of seed TODAY!

NO CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP: 100% donations from our local citizens go only and directly to best management practices for naturalization of riparian areas - this is what grassroots organizing is all about! ALL VOLUNTEERS~ All money came from: Grateful Music Productions/Save Maumee Rock Out-Camp Out, Berlin Music Pub’s PUNK PARTY, Save Maumee Earth Day 2010, Save Maumee Canoe Clean-Up 2010, Save Maumee Presents: Sounds of Saturn & Les Nester at Dash-In, Sports & Spirits Bar & Grill. Namaste to many small monetary donors! Save Maumee did not raise as much money as last year but we are very proud to supply you with these effective erosion control techniques for OUR riverbanks!

What is the Media Blitz @ 1:45PM?

Save Maumee Grassroots Organization attempted to make national T.V. ~ (yea we wish) we want the media to help us draw attention to our efforts and many issues that face our waterways because we want CLEAN WATER. If you do not want to be video recorded, be aware of the cameras and keep working out of sight & sign the waiver. ~ EVERYONE WELCOME!

We hope you will…just roll with it and have a good time!

A. Look like you are having the time of your life, SMILE, dance, hula hoop, juggle, be funny and show excitement. Free expression time!

B. Gather close together at the designated sign: “Media Blitz Here @1:45.”

C. We will be giving a shout-out to the following people & hold up signs for:


#1 – Ellen Degeneres – The Wilderness plays for our dancing pleasure-DANCE
#2 – Jimmy Kimmel – We will mention Harry Baals our former mayor
#3 – John Stewart – We will mention Harry Baals our former mayor
#4 – Steven Colbert – STEVEN STEVEN STEVEN – chant his name
#5 – Oprah Winfrey – We want you to know what is happening to your Great Lakes
#6 - Dr. Oz – we want to know about the contaminants that are in our water and what long term exposure does to our body? Cryptosporidium, Mercury, PCB, Heavy metals, non-pharmaceutical grade fluoride, hexovalent chromium, Perchlorate, phosphorous?

YELL: WE LOVE YOU _____________________

Each of the celebrities will get about 10-20 seconds of us yelling for them…then we will CUT and start the next designated person.

GOT IT? Impromptu grassroots organizing?
Doin’ it for your rivers!

Disclaimer: Save Maumee does not carry power as to the fate of our rivers. YOU DO! People need to feel more connected to each other, to nature, and to the things that are most valuable. We feel a personal connection to our waterways and love our rivers and we want you to as well. Civic duty and helping your fellow man should be words that fall from your mouth continuously. We want this event to leave you hopeful and empowered. Please realize that we all want the same thing - CLEAN WATER. Water is a right not a luxury and keeping pollution out of our rivers is our priority. We do not talk politics, but you are making a political statement by being here.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, dedicated citizens can change the world… indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

Special THANK YOU from Save Maumee to ALL the people who helped bring all of us together this year! Our events are FREE but ALL donations go to projects like this one! Give till it hurts – OUCH!
See our thank you list!

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Updates from 2010 Earth Day
 

TOTAL TRASH REMOVED FROM OUR WATERWAYS in April 2010:
8.5 TONS ~ The benthos community thanks you! 

Sunday April 18^th,  2010 we had 267 official count of volunteers that worked so hard!  EVERYONE who works for Save Maumee Grassroots Organization and your rivers, do not receive any compensation of any kind.  100% of donations go to the expensive restoration technique materials.

YOU planted 3 acres worth of native riparian DNR approved seed underneath 1,000 sq ft. of erosion control mats and other barren areas to reduce erosion/sedimentation.

TREE PLANTING RECORD THIS YEAR!  - 60 River Birch, 40 Burr Oak, 50 Red Oak, 20 Pin Oak, 20 Swamp Oak and over 1,000 Weeping Willow Poles and Corkscrew Willow Poles!  Total tree count for this one day: 1,090 TREES

This Earth Day brought the total to just fewer than 2,000 trees planted on your waterways!

YOU planted over 300 native plant plugs (previously started seedlings)! These retain deep tap roots that hold them in place when the area floods. (after 5 years of growth)  ALL these hearty plants are able to live through drought or flood due to their deep tap roots and are ideal for our riverbanks…it is even improving the areas plant diversity! 

 Our luxury item was planting 60 Raspberry Bushes & 8 Blackberry bushes

UPDATE to plantings: The trees, “poles” and plant plugs were under water for 1 week that began 4/27/10 …still waiting to see the water recede from the rain-storms on 5/21/10 and today is 5/30/10!   -
Now it is September 13, 2010 and our plants did not fair as well as we hoped!  It was so dry this summer, lets just see how they come back in 2011!

 Special THANK YOU from Save Maumee to the following people who helped bring all of us together this year! Our events are FREE but ALL donations go to projects like this one! Give till it hurts – OUCH!  The list is getting pretty long but unity and gratitude are so important to share! THANK YOU!

…AND ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO HELP EVERYDAY AS VOLUNTEERS - THANKS and if we forgot to include you DOUBLE THANK YOU! The heart of grassroots belongs to people who donate time or supplies or BOTH!

 

Interesting things we PULLED OUT or WORKER: Award Winners 

 Largest Trash– REMOVED FULL SIZED of the following…water heater, old steel manual plow, a car seat, 2 refrigerators, a furnace, a stove, 12 tires, 85 oz can of oil, 25ft. of a gas pipe, 15 ft. of unknown pipe, rugs and a car trailer hitch.

It took Senatorial Candidate (15^th District) Jack Morris, Bryce Gustafson, Brian Foster, Wade, Marissa Jones, Greg Morricle, Sandman, Josh Jackson, Rickey Fuller, Harold Wallen, Peter Kauffman, Evan Hill and the guy in the blue shirt! The guys took the scrap in for recycling the next day!  SWEAT EQUITY!

Coolest Find - Morrell Mushrooms were found – ssshhhh it’s a secret where they grow! 

Most Contaminated Trash– An 85 oz full can of oil found by local artist Rickey Fuller…along with all the kitchen appliances! 

Largest Unified Group – Phi Theta Kappa – Honors Society from Purdue University

Funniest Trash – A red high healed pair of shoes found by Brenden Sears (8) Kerian Ward (11) and Elyssa Fuller (11)

Most potential to contain West Nile – 12 tires

Most berry bushes planted Winner: Bruce Allen planted all the raspberry bushes and also represented the Maumee River (and northeast Indiana) in Washington D.C. this year thanks to Healing-Our-Waters!

Got the most children involved: Gary & Nicole Jeffery

Most Fauna Love - Preston Arbuckle hung a Wrens’ Nest on the Maumee Riverbanks - from Wild Birds Unlimited

 Most Interesting - Ashley’s family – brought us some old railroad lights (covers)? pulled out of the Maumee and they were given to Ellen Ley for art creation!

 Celia Garza got the names for the thank you for all of our hard workers (FOR HOURS and HOURS) down on the erosion control project and I never got them!!! BOO! THANK YOU HARD WORKERS!

Total Miles of northern AND southern streambank cleansed – 1.5 miles - including “The Ravine” self-dug bike trail which is considered one of the top 10 self-dug bike trails in the USA.

Most FUN: Andy’s Horse Tours and Rentals – had 6 horses and a miniature pony to take you for rides on the greenway! – NICE! Their volunteers also painted faces!

Most Educational Soaring Hawk brought a Short Eared Owl & Red Tailed Hawk and spoke about their habitat on the riverbanks – What beautiful animals!

Most Home-Useful - Rain Barrel Demonstration by Lyle McDermott to show us how to capture water and release during drier periods…great idea for watering a rain garden, food garden, or your flowers!

Jain Young – Herb Specialist took volunteers on an “Edible Herb Walk” to show what you are missing on your plate at home – native home grown food grown right here!

Grace Strahm - demonstrated what a watershed IS and how YOU affect it with an enviroscape demonstration.

Of course we needed something to keep ya’ll lively….
* Health Food Shoppe Snacks
* Coffee from Old Crown Coffee Roasters
* REUSABLE water bottles from ACRES Land Trust & U.S. Air Force
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Updates from 2009 Earth Day

The mats the volunteers installed last year were a success, but the real success is always measured in spring! 

*Seed & tree planting from Earth Day: The grasses are definitely growing, yet struggling without enough water. It has been a very dry growing season in 2009. Your seeds you planted on the riverbanks on Earth Day would love you to come and water them…looking dry but still growing slowly! The Paw Paw Trees were a failure due to the dry season, yet the rest 400 or so trees: Persimmon, Oak, Maple etc. are doing VERY WELL! Come see the progress, visit your riverbank!
 

In 2010 we will be using plants from the greenhouse harvested from the Fox Island Seed Gathering - along with the usual Earth Source/Heartland Restoration seeds and plant plugs!

Other Happenings for the year:

* In the works is an Upper-Maumee Watershed Management Plan that is beginning to form! Save Maumee has been asking for a watershed plan to develop -THANK YOU! A watershed coordinator is needed for Ohio/Indiana and city/county boundaries! This may be the ideal position for me! If you want to see this plan take form and provide your input, PLEASE check out the website if you would like to attend a monthly meeting!  www.uppermaumeewatershed.com

*Currently, Top Notch Tree Service has donated space in their 10X30 greenhouse to grow OUR riverbank plants! THANK YOU! Many Save Maumee Supporters have put forth effort building the greenhouse, putting it together with 85% salvage and recycled material! YEAHHH! We will be ready to begin to plant what we have harvested from the Fox Island Seed Harvesting on Sept. 26th, 2009!

*Greenfest was very successful for the first annual event at the SouthWest Conservation Club thanks to Waynedale Green Alliance.
Fort Wayne Mayor, Tom Henry was there and listened to every word spoken when Abby educated the crowd! He said to come and speak with him any time regarding your rivers. Thank you Mayor!

*IPFW Earth Day April 22, 2010 - Save Maumee had a booth at our local college to speak for your rivers. We like to have ACTIVE events, but encourage events to raise awareness. There were lots of good give-aways here! We will be there, supporting Earth Day on its 27th year anniversary in 2010!

*Join us at one of our web communities...we are all about pro-active workings, so we don't update as often as we should....but we are DOING IT, not just talking about it! 

Please write your representatives: Tell them you do not approve of past mistakes and want clean water for our future and would volunteer your time and/or services to support efforts.    

           Please email  Abigail King or call 260.417.2500