Watershed meeting

Rock Creek Watershed Meeting
Thursday February 4th
Traders & Farmers Bank
Addison
7:00 P.M.

Sponsored By: Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Inc.
& Al. Water Watch, from Auburn University
For Information, Mona Scruggs 251-282-9998 “Al. Water Watch”
Or LaVerne Matheson 256-747-4422 President “WCSLAI.”
We are looking for people who are interested in seeing Rock Creek Watershed improved to it’s original status like a blue diamond, crystal clean water again. There will be committees meeting at 6:PM.These committees are the Technical or Evaluation/Outreach committees.
We need more people to serve on these committees.
WE NEED YOUR HELP

Local Styrofoam Clean-ups

The "Advocacy" now has another location, where we can unload our barge, when a group of local homeowners/property owners want to remove the white styrofoam, floating or sitting on the shore, making their area of the lake, look bad.For the folks living on Brushy,Hog House,Rock House Yellow Creek, Upper Sipsey, have at least 4 people to work on the barge helping to pick up and unload styrofoam, give any of our directors a call, and we will arrange for someone to bring our barge, for your group to use. Our pontoon boat is 24 ft long, the barge we push is 26 ft long. Figure one load per day. Believe me that will be a lot of styrofoam.We also have the tools to use picking up the styrofoam.

Styrofoam

We have had people asking ,where can I take the White Styrofoam for disposal. The Advocacy considers the lake in Winston County and Crooked Creek, which is part of the Rock Creek Watershed, as our responsibility to help keep clean. Should you own property in any of this area,and still have styrofoam to remove from your boathouse,need a place to dispose of the Styrofoam CALL JIM KING 256-747-6445]
You must call for instruction on where to deliver the Strofoam but also when to deliver it!!!
WHITE STROFOAM ONLY!!!!

Eagles

The morning of January 6th I was putting feed in one of our bird feeders and I looked toward our Boat house and there were 2 bald eagles , not over 150 feet from me, gliding/flying not over 20 feet above our boat house. What beautiful birds with their white heads and tails. My neighbor David saw one of these eagles the day before. That eagle landed in a tree overlooking the lake. He grabbed his camera and was able to get pictures of that eagle.
I was talking with my friend Warren who lives on White Oak and was telling him about the 2 eagles. Then Warren said” Laverne remember when I told you about seeing otter almost every day when I was fishing, their gone”. He went on to tell me that about a year ago there were some limb-liners fishing in that area. The otter were stealing fish off of their lines, they were cussing these otter for stealing fish. The otter are now gone, we’ll never know where they went.
We are living in paradise, where else can look out of your windows and see and enjoy so much of nature. This lake is such a treasure, for both you and I, but lets share it with natures friends and enjoy the beauty and amusement they give us each year.
These eagles were near the north end of Bailey Bridge on Rock Creek.

Advocacy Board Meeting

We had a board meeting January 12th the first meeting of 2010.We are planning to have a public meeting in April at Double Springs. There will be an election of officers and directors at the public meeting. We are having the meeting in Double Springs allowing our members living in that area, other homeowners, property owners to attend our public meeting. This will allow people to meet us, find out what our mission is and help us take care of Smith Lake.
Mary Ann reported on the current water testing. There will be a blitz bacteria testing on the lake in Winston County on February 6th.All testing equipment will be furnished by Alabama Water Watch, and reading of test results will be completed by AWW. There will be a bacteria testing class available on Friday the 5th. We need your help!!!
Judy and Mary Ann reported on how the kids at the Fawn program in October liked there program
Tom reported that the funding for installing signage on Smith Lake supposedly has been approved. Tom has a current list of all creeks, branches, total count 32. When we start installing these signs we will need some help. Give me a call if you want to help us with the installation of these signs.
We have a 2 day clean-up in April and a 3 day clean-up in June.
Mona is working on the Power Point Watershed Program. There will be more meetings this spring concerning the Rock Creek Watershed Management plans.
There have been 3 localized clean-ups, Rock Creek, White Oak and Crooked Creek. These clean-ups were completed by local homeowners using The “Advocacy boat and Barge”. They pick up only Styrofoam. We have arranged for a place on Rock Creek to unload the Styrofoam, the county hauls it off. We are in the process of finding other places on the lake where we can unload Styrofoam and the county will haul it off. Hopefully when another unloading place is found, there will be homeowners that want to clean up there part of the lake. The “Advocacy boat and Barge is usually available”, it belongs to the Advocacy membership!!
There were many other items discussed. The next board meeting is Feb.9th, 10:00 AM in Arley. The meeting is open to the public.