Save Maumee’s Annual Fundraiser ~Farewell Miss Maumee~ OUTDOORS RAIN OR SHINE Saturday April 24, 2021 3pm-10pm LOCATION: 501 Rose Ave. New Haven, IN 46774 ~ DO NOT GO DOWN WEST STREET ~ Drive down "The Lane” which is between Heartland Communities Farm field and the brick farm house, just east of West Street. The fundraiser this year should be quite a show! BANDS & PERFORMANCE ART *Estimated Times 3pm - Kyle Haller Band 3:45p.m. - Grateful Groove 5:00p.m.- The Debutants 5:45p.m. - Elle/the Remnant 6:30p.m. - Know no oth3r 7:00p.m. - Belly Dancing by: - Lori of Troupe Zephyr - Zosia - Troupe Metanoia A Farewell To Miss Maumee! 7:45p.m. - El Camino Hot Tub 8:15p.m. - Los Lemons 9:00p.m. - Danielle Frederick 9:30p.m. - PyroScope Event Tickets $12.33 <10 years old FREE Parking is limited Come CELEBRATE with us as we wave au’ revoir as Abigail King takes a break in 2021! Brent Warner & Abby are engaged and leaving the USA on April 28! They plan to live a modest Tico lifestyle in Costa Rica for 1 year and promises to return by mid 2022. Goals include living among plants and animals while nestled on a 60 mile landmass separatingRead more →
The Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department is conducting a Community Needs Assessment Survey The Survey is being conducted to gather crucial feedback about parks, facilities and programs offered to Fort Wayne citizens. A randomly selected group of citizens will receive or have already received a questionnaire in the mail, which can be completed and mailed back in an included postage-paid envelope, or can be completed online following included instructions. To ensure a comprehensive result, those who received Needs Assessment questionnaires are encouraged to complete the survey, even if they do not use most or any Parks and Recreation services. Citizen feedback is vital to the strategic planning efforts of the Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation Department, and citizens can participate even if they did not receive a survey in the mail. Save Maumee is requesting you share feedback on this survey by clicking on this link: https://confidential-survey.com/datafile/fortwayneserved1.htm Here are a few comments submitted, regarding the survey. CLICK TO READ SAVE MAUMEE’S ENTIRE COMMENTS HERE Read more →
Allen County’s current Comprehensive Plan is called Plan-It Allen. FOUND HERE: Allen County’s new Comprehensive Plan is in the works and its called, All-In Allen. This document will shape our development plans for the next 12-15 years of growth. Fort Wayne City Council will fund a consulting team from Chicago, Houseal Lavigne, to oversee the community plan; guiding land-use, housing, transportation, parks and other development for the entire county. 50 percent of the project costs $333,530, funded by City Council. The other 50 percent will need approval from the Allen County Council, but regardless, around $667,060 it will be paid by our tax payer dollars and Save Maumee wants your voice to be heard. We want these representatives to not simply draft a plan to collect dust on a shelf. We want them to implement the plan and hold people who are financially benefiting from these dollars to be held to higher environmental standards. “The consulting team will work with local leaders to develop a plan that will create a broad, shared vision for future growth and development. The community’s last comprehensive plan was adopted in 2007. The city says many of the goals of the plan have been eitherRead more →
12th Annual Canoe Clean-Up, Can YOU Clean-Up? 12th Annual Canoe Clean-Up was a success! BIG shout out to Fort Wayne Outfitter's Bike Depot & Bike Hub canoe/kayak use, Bradley Scott & Jeff Bunger for YEARS of entertaining us with their talented tunes! Old Crown Coffee Roasters at the beginning with their delicious donation and accepting our trash after we pulled it out of the river and into their dumpster! Everyone always wants to know what we pulled out of the river! Styrofoam, plastic, cigarette butts, aluminum cans and glass bottles, rubber ball, tennis ball, 3 car tires, care fuel pump/hose, tent, tarps, wet blankets, hypodermic needles, tampons, to-go boxes, bike rack/bike tire, clothing, lighters, cigarette packs/chew packs, boat anchor, caution tape and so much more! Always thank you to our Board Members, Celia Elder, A.T. Thieme-Hamman, Aaron Goulet, Ellen Bauman, Jain Young & Heartland Communities: Plowshares, with Lauren Conklin special shout out for the great pics! YES! Thank you picture takers and our trash digging volunteers: Lisa Chantaca, Tricia Cliffton Brent Warner Bryan Utesch, & Daniel Hart! We had about 65 people overall who participated today! The St. Marys and Maumee are better now because of YOU! Save Ma_mee ~Read more →
These were the notes I took at the International Joint Commission, Status of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement I thought it was very important others read my notes. Here is what we said about the Western Lake Erie Basin in the last draft: READ HERE June 18, 2019 - Milwaukee Wisconsin Round Table Discussion Meeting International Joint Commission (IJC) - Status of Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement 8 States - 2 Provinces of Canada This IJC meeting is assessing progress of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and take suggestions from stakeholders and experts, the need for a united front is necessary to progress. IJC needs to be the watchdog of the Great Lakes…not just Canada or USA - elevate and help the 2 parties in a partisan way. This group has been taking science and using it to act as an advocate that can protect the public trust since 1972. This meeting took recommendations for additional actions and priorities governments can undertake to improve water quality. A report will be published after data is reviewed about the findings from this meeting. Major Challenges for the next 10 years ~ need resolve environmental education; as a curriculum forRead more →
Save Maumee’s Meeting Monday December 3, 2018 ~ 7-8:30pm and the group hosted Megan Butler from Riverfront Development for a Q&A at Mad Anthony’s, 2002 Broadway & Taylor Street, Fort Wayne. Megan called the group because she wants others to see the vision of Riverfront Development and wants Save Maumee and others to know that Riverfront Development is working on water quality issues. Save Maumee is always looking to open communication to help create a more symbiotic relationship between people who work to improve conditions, because then we all win! Ms. Butler says no question is off limits. Save Maumee has never been against Riverfront Development. Our group was present when the Legacy dollars began funding plans of grandeur for our waters edge. After attending the first two meetings in 2013, it was revealed that, “it is not within the scope of riverfront development to work on water quality issues.” So time passed and the public was heard and the agencies involved began to develop the plan and came to understand the fact that people want water quality to be considered. Save Maumee is concerned that the Riverfront Development Project is an example of what is happening all over Indiana and the
Read more →Allen County IDEM comment period is now through December 17, 2018 for permitting in the Orthophosphate Pilot Project at the Fort Wayne Water Filtration Plant. https://www.in.gov/idem/files/notice_20181227_ws_11909.pdf Save Maumee Member, Daniel Bennett Ph.D. dug into this a bit, and explains, “I looked for recent orthophosphate references from Fort Wayne Utilities and saw this letter they put out earlier this month and discusses elevated lead results from this Summer.” https://www.cityoffortwayne.org/images/stories/Utilities/docs/Lead/Lead_results_letter_2018_web.pdf Fort Wayne City Utilities tested 70 local homes, and 8 of those 70 had higher than recommended levels of lead. The letter continues on describing the dangers of lead in water, what homeowners should do, and what Fort Wayne is doing about it. For The City’s own response, they write: Fort Wayne employs pH and alkalinity adjustment to control corrosion. Over the years this treatment has proven to be effective. Currently the utility is in process of evaluating addition of orthophosphate to the water to improve corrosion control. So based on the timing of the permit, Dr. Bennett is assuming that the ”Orthophosphate Pilot Project” is a direct response to these poor lead tests. The purpose of the added orthophosphate then, in this case, is to act as “corrosion inhibitor” in
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Support selective removal of invasive plants Update: January 23, 2019 Natural Resources Commission adopted a rule that will make dozens of invasive plant species illegal in Indiana pending it pass approval from Governor Eric Holcomb. “This rule takes 44 highly invasive species and makes it illegal to sell or offer for sale, gift, barter, exchange or distribute them,” said Ellen Jacquart, a member of the Invasive Plant Advisory Committee and president of the Indiana Native Plant Society. Was stated in HoosierTimes.com and nwitimes.com The rule would ban transporting, selling or soliciting orders for 44 plant species in Indiana. The state spends an estimated $8.6 million managing invasive plants each year, said Megan Abraham, an entomologist with the state. Invasive plants can often regenerate quicker than native species and cause problems for those plants, especially those that are already threatened or endangered. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources determined that 22 of the invasive plants can be found in nurseries and retail stores, four of which are sold with regularity, Abraham said. She said businesses selling black alder, wintercreeper, amur honeysuckle and common buckthorn should be able to reduce to eliminate their stock while the rule is being reviewed to cause lessRead more →
January 19, 2014 by Jessica Sedge - Contagious Communities “It can’t be political” was the exact comment that I made to my friend Abby King when we discussed the nuances of doing a blog piece regarding her nonprofit organization. Her response was this: “Water is life. It does not recognize politics, democrats and republicans.” And so the blog lives. Save Maumee is a grassroots, 100% volunteer organization that originated in Fort Wayne, Indiana around the year 2001. King had just purchased a home near the Maumee River and quickly discovered that our rivers were contaminated. “When I asked people what they were contaminated with, no one even knew” says King. So she did exactly what we advocate at Contagious Community and became an agent for positive change. Save Maumee continues to thrive and promote activism, awareness, and (albeit quasi-political) to lobby for legal intervention into the safety and sustainability of our water sources. The organization has become active in Congress (our own Fort Wayne people are affecting the Federal level of government). They recently educated members of Congress on the downside to widespread vegetation removal around rivers, which was occurring in Fort Wayne. According to King, the organization has made significantRead more →
CLICK PIC FOR MORE INFORMATION Save Maumee’s Riparian Buffer Initiative 2016 through 2018 Read more →
SAVE MAUMEE GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION·TUESDAY, JUNE 26, 2018 Diversity is Earth’s antibiotic. The new forestry technique is to remove the invasive species in wild areas, and the natives will return. One does not even have to plant any other plants (although it helps)! To have the natives return, one just needs to remove the plants that do not belong and nature will take care of the rest! Humans have introduced these non-natives and it will take humans to help get them under control. The native species are better adapted to our climate and have longer taproots to live through drought of flood. They have adapted over millions of years and this will help keep them hardy and help them to make it through stress caused by climate changes. Animals in the specific region go hand-in-hand with the plants and have also taken a million years (or so) to adapt and become dependent on the native food sources and habitat these native species of plants provide. Invasive species are not suitable to our local adapted wildlife. Be selective in your removal though, because different species of plants should be identified and categorized differently…for example: * Natives – desirable and present previous to
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THIS EVENT WAS 2018 SEE THE 2019 EVENT HERE ANOTHER Bazaar Evening on the Maumee River will be Saturday February 23, 2019 but the event advertised below was in 2018~ THANKS EVERYONE Address: TekVenture Inc. 1550 Griffin Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46803 Located in the old River City Complex on the south side of the Tecumseh Bridge. Save Maumee’s ONLY FUNDRAISER FOR THE YEAR! Save Maumee presents A Bazaar Evening for you along the Maumee River at TekVenture Inc. ~ the 20,000 square foot, heated historic warehouse should hold many surprises the weekend after Valentines Day! So bring your sweetheart, and the family and show support for your local waterways! $8 at the door will enter you to get a door prize or two and access to everything at this large event! WATCH THIS VIDEO FOR YOUR PERSONAL INVITATION TO OUR EVENT AND INTRODUCTION TO OUR WORK! River City Complex, Old Sneaky Pete's Save Maumee plans to WOW you with another fabulous fundraiser to help protect water quality in the Maumee River and the 11 million people downstream! Click for Facebook invitation to the event: Raffle, Door Prizes, 5 bands, Art Show, Bazaar Shopping, Belly Dancing and MORE * 5 Bands ~ FeaturingRead more →
Indiana’s Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Domestic Action Plan for the Western Lake Erie Basin Comments submitted by Save Maumee Grassroots Organization August 21, 2017 SMGO Comment for GLWQA DAP WLEB Indiana Department of Environmental Management Draft currently open for comment until October 13th. Save Maumee’s implementation projects are included. PDF HERE Background and Public Notice HERE Indiana, Michigan and Ohio in the United states are submitting Domestic Action Plans. HERE Summary of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada. CLICK HERE Indiana's Final GLWQA DAP for the WLEB_DAP : FEBRUARY 2018 FINAL Read more →
Press Release: February 17, 2017 You’re Invited ~ Save Maumee Grassroots Organization invites you to a collage of music, art expression and activism at their Wine and Canvass Art-N-Party fundraiser on February 25, 2017 from 5:00 PM to midnight at The Phoenix, located at 1122 Broadway, Fort Wayne, IN 46802. Save Maumee is teaming up with local artist Terry Ratliff to assist participants in painting a beautiful Maumee River landscape. The Wine and Canvass event will take place from 5:00-7:00 PM, with music following directly afterwards. Local musical talent, the Grateful Groove and U.R.B., will take to the stage for a night of music that will make you shake-a-tail feather! This is an all ages venue, so please bring the kids to participate in the Cookies and Canvass from, 7:00 -9:00 PM in the foyer with dancing all night! Raffle tickets for a silent auction will be available for purchase throughout the evening. The group gives many thanks to the local businesses that have donated items to help raise money for upcoming restoration projects. Whether you buy a t-shirt, plant a tree in your name, or join any of the 3-day Earth Day Celebration coming up in April, the work could not be done with out everyone’s support. As part of the fundraising event, Save Maumee will be donating a handcrafted, up-cycled bench to local painter, Terry Ratliff. The bench will replace the Rat Art bench that was destroyed by vandals last summer,
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Riverfront Rapport February 8, 2017 CLICK TO SEE OUR UPCOMING EVENTS 3 Day Earth Day Weekend, because 1 day just isn’t enough… Fundraiser February 25
Read more →Press Release: October 11, 2016 Contact: Abigail Frost-King, Save Maumee Vice President & Founder 260-417-2500 Federal money to restore streams and ditches: Save Maumee needs riverbank volunteers 4 days in October and beyond 2018 This Saturday, October 15, the public is invited to harvest seed from Eagle Marsh Nature Preserve with Save Maumee Grassroots Organization. It is illegal to remove anything from nature preserves, but Little River Wetlands Project opens their land for harvesting seed that will be planted nearby, at a site where 460 trees will be planted over 3 days. Save Maumee invites the public to help plant the trees and seeds on Friday, October 21, Saturday, October 22 and Sunday, October 23 in New Haven. Koster Ditch is a major tributary to the Maumee River that flows through Six Mile Creek subwatershed. Participants will help to improve and protect water quality that flows directly into an EPA-designated priority Area of Concern. To date, Save Maumee has been the only group to implement the Upper Maumee River Watershed Management Plan (UM WMP) that was approved in December 2013. The group plans to plant a total of 1,390 trees by April 2017, to complete its first Riparian Buffer Initiative
Read more →From the document: Wabash – Maumee Connection Site Visit Field Report July 27, 2010 Prepared For: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office Click to access Wabash-Maumee-Field-Report_Final_small.pdf “Of primary concern are the Silver and Bighead carp which have been expanding their habitats within the Mississippi River basin for at least the past twenty years where they have decimated native fish populations by as much as 97 percent in some areas. These fish are currently threatening to enter the Great Lakes, a valuable fresh water resource.” THIS is the specific location they are able to cross from the Mississippi via the Wabash to the Great Lakes via the St. Marys/Maumee. “Asian carp have been known to exist within the Wabash River for nearly 20 years. However, in May 2010 Indiana DNR observed Asian Carp eggs and spawning behavior much further upstream on the Wabash than was previously anticipated. The Wabash River was a “dead‐ end” for these fish as the Roush Dam prevents Asian carp from reaching the headwaters of the Wabash River. However, the Little River connects to the Wabash below the dam and its headwaters ebb into marshland on the southwestern edge of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Due
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