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Canoe Expedition Cleans Up Hurricane Debris From Bayou

MANDEVILLE, LA (AP) – The dragonflies buzzing atop the tea-colored water and the twittering blackbirds in the marsh grasses were right at home along Cane Bayou and the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline.
The truck tire, soccer ball and braided rug were not.

Those items were among trash pulled from the bayou and the marshes near the lake shoreline by an expedition of 16 people in eight canoes that aimed to remove some of the urban debris left scattered in waterways by Hurricane Katrina.

“ There’s so much stuff out there that if people like us don’t come out and pick it out it’ll be here for a long, long time,” said outfitter Byron Almquist, who supplied the canoes for the environmental cleanup on the opposite side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

The group of men, women and children – ranging from a data entry worker to a physician – initially found little trash along the banks of the bayou because a Baton Rouge paddling club had made a cleanup run the previous weekend.

But more debris began to appear along the bayou close to the lake and on its shore: wine and beer bottles, cans, plastic foam, five-gallon buckets, tubs, a 55-gallon plastic drum and a green plastic trash container – more than could be held in the canoes.

Some had to be left in an impromptu dump to await wildlife authorities with bigger boats.

The hurricane’s impact was evident in the matted grasses that used to stand head-high and in the empty treetops that had held osprey nests until Katrina blasted them away.

The group saw some wildlife, though. A great egret and blue heron were spotted, and a belted kingfisher flew over the bayou. At one point a lone coot peered at the passing canoes. But the paddlers also had their eyes out for things distinctly unnatural.

“ I got a lot of Mardi Gras cups,” announced Lou Furman, an employee of a nonprofit group.

“ I got you beat, a cup in a cup,” answered Fran Hannan, who came with husband Jack, a computer consultant from the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.

“ I got a garbage can,” Furman added, holding a ragged half of a trash container.

Margie Vicknair-Pray used the trip to give ecology lessons to daughter Patton Pray, 12, and Patton’s best friend Evva Frisby.

“ What’s that floating plant?” Vicknair-Pray asked as she pointed at pinhead size leaves floating on the water.

“ Duckweed,” said Patton.

“ What’s unique about it?” Vicknair asked.

“ It’s the world’s smallest flowering plant,” Evva chimed in.

Furman, whose job is at least on hold, said at the outset that he wanted to contribute something worthwhile. Afterward, he said it also had been a personal renewal.

“ I’ve cleaned up trash before,” he said, “but I’m finding my community again.”

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