Past Activities
ROTTENWOOD CREEK RIVER RENDEZVOUS 2007 - May 19, 2007
On Saturday, May 19, 2007 at 8:30, a sunny, warm morning, 28 Sierrans met at the Cobb County Water Department to take part in the first-ever River Rendezvous in Cobb County. The Sierrans were joined by technicians and outreach officers from Georgia EPD and from Cobb County Water. These events have been held in other areas around the country over the past few years. The idea is to take a snapshot of the health of an entire watershed. This "snapshot" can pinpoint problem spots and provide an overview of a stream's health more quickly and completely than we are able to do in the once monthly, one location monitorings we generally do.
In fact, two teams, one headed by Jeff Hite and the other by Kobus van den Berg, actually found active sewage spills going into Rottenwood Creek on that day. Cobb County Water Department sent out emergency response teams immediately to stop and clean up the spills.
A total of 30 sites were sampled by 10 teams of Sierrans accompanied by technicians. Each team leader had been trained in chemical monitoring methods and certified by Georgia EPD Adopt-a-Stream in March 2007. Jennifer McCoy handled all the training and all the logistics for the event with her usual flair and competence.
The 30 sites along Rottenwood Creek and its tributaries were selected by Charles Roebuck, Ina Allison and Didi Johnson on one marathon Saturday expedition in April with maps supplied by Cobb County Water Department. Many of the sites are publicly accessible but property owners were amazingly receptive to the sampling -- as long as we gave them the results when available.
A normal Sierra Club chemical monitoring includes temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH. We ran those tests on site and then collected samples for the enhanced tests, which are being conducted by the Cobb County laboratory chemists, include e-coli, nitrates, nitrites, phosphates and various heavy metals. These tests do require both time -- up to 6 weeks for some of the metals -- and sophisticated equipment beyond the expertise of most volunteers. The results will be available for the July Sierra Club Centennial Group picnic and we're eagerly awaiting them.
Beyond the sampling, each team collected garbage at each site, and completed a Habitat Survey.
Didi's team had a fairly uneventful sampling, except that we did wake up the resident homeless man who lives under the underpass at the Spaghetti Warehouse. He watched silently and intently as we splashed about and collected samples just upstream from his den. Perhaps we should have sampled downstream as well!
We concluded with a barbecue - the highlight of any Sierra Club/A-a-S activity!
Annual Centennial Summer Picnic at East Cobb Park - July 6, 2006
The picnic was absolutely magical — the weather was wonderfully cool, the East Cobb Park provided a beautiful setting, and we enjoyed a great turnout and great food. It was an inspiration to see Helen Cox getting other park-goers to sign the Sierra Club’s mercury petition. And a thanks goes to Mark Banks who did a great job on the grill. Also, hats off to Ina Allison who won the prize for being the first person to come up to Todd and tell him the contents of last week’s Bonus Article. She'll receive a prize at the August meeting.
Service Project - Trail Maintenance - June 17, 2006
 The Chapter Wildlands and Wildlife committee met for a service project in the Cooper Creek Wildlife Area of the Chattahoochee National Forest. We participated in trail clean-up and restoration work to help rehab this beautiful area.
THIRD Annual River Clean-Up - May 20, 2006
We were terrific!
At last 1000 invasive privet plants met their deserved fate at the hands of determined Sierra Club volunteers. This effort, led by Susan Dukes, ourNational Park Service volunteer coordinator, will aid in the growth of the 300 or so native plants that the Georgia Power volunteers put in two weeks ago by reducing the competition. It was a remarkable bit of work and full praise goes to all those "gardeners"!
And Roger led a determined group of trash gatherers far up Rottenwood Creek, well past the regular monitoring site. They returned with bags full of paper and plastic and other non-native invaders. This group included our youngest volunteer, Zoe, who at the age of 7 shows a good grasp of environmental principles.
The team at the monitoring site had little trash to collect, but did manage to remove the shopping cart long buried in the sand at the base of the center pylon of the aerial sewer pipe. And a tire -- partially trapped by a log. And the last tree from the hurricane season two years ago was finally removed from the sewer pipe -- accompanied by loud cheers and a small tsunami wave rippling down the creek as it splashed down!
Most appreciated of all the efforts, however, were those of Ron and Sally Warnken. They made sure that we were all fed, with plenty of good food well cooked and good organization and huge smiles as we all trooped back in, hungry and thirsty.
It was a great Saturday on the creek and I do believe that everyone had fun.
May 2006 Meeting
 Helen Cox gave us a presentation on ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and we watched a video entitled "Oil on Ice".
Earth Day - April 22, 2006 - Down to Earth Day Kids Fest
The Captain Planet Foundation's Fourth Annual Down to Earth Day Kids Fest was held at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. We provided hands-on activity stations for families. At first we thought we were going to be washed out by the rain, but the skies cleared and we ended up having a beautiful day.
The Centennial booth had two great exhibits for children: One was a fishing exercise where children were given a fishing pole and tried to catch fish that were not “contaminated” by mercury. The other exhibit was awesome: it was a model of a community. The goal was to teach kids about the effect of non-point source pollution. The youngsters put silt, oil, detergent, and fertilizer at different places in the model community and then created “rain” with a spray bottle. It was quite dramatic to see the pollutants go down the street, into drains, into streams, and eventually into a lake. The multi-colored water in the lake made quite an impression on the kids. A “thank you” goes to Cobb’s Adopt-A-Stream office for loaning us this wonderful exhibit.
A special thanks goes to our tabling volunteers: Kathryn, Bob, Earl, Mark, Tom, Marie, and Todd. Also, some of the Centennial members that worked for the Nature Center during the day included Ron and Sally Warnken and Christie Hill.
April 2006 Meeting
We had Kelly Hopkins and Lisa Hurt from the Atlanta Autobahn Society talk to us about their organization and the importance of buying shade-grown coffee which can be purchased on the Sierra Clubs website. Sun-grown coffee requires vegetation to be cut down which destroys the migratory bird habitats. You can order the Sierra Club-brand organic, shade-grown coffee online.
Message from Roberta Cook Concerning the Rezoning Meeting Held on Nov 15, 2005:
Thank you for all your support in opposition petitions, and presence at the Cobb public hearings yesterday (Nov 15, 2005) for the rezoning of Z-151 on Community Drive & Buckner, 10 acres Z-171 on Henderson Road & Veterans Memorial, 16 acres. Thanks to our group effort, I was able to submit 101 signatures in opposition to Z-151 and 186 signatures (including on-line petition) in opposition to Z-171 to the clerk for public record. 39 people personally showed up at the hearing who opposed both zonings. This is a fantastic turnout of people!!! It is very unusual to have that many people opposing a rezoning.
The Board of Commissioners did approve Z-151, and they "held" their decision on Z-171 for the December hearing. Although we lost Z-151, we helped the Board of Commissioners recognize that people are concerned about Nickajack Creek, flooding, stormwater runoff, and tree preservation. The Z-171 plan was much worse in terrain and density of housing than Z-151, so the delay will give us time to talk with the developer about plan improvements.
Here's the link to the Marietta Daily Journal article on November 13. www.mdjonline.com/articles/2005/11/13/89/10201243.prt
Rivers Alive River Cleanup -- September 24, 2005
It wasn't ALL work. Look, one volunteer decided to go for a swim! And of course another volunteer was ready to lend him a hand (or was he asking to be dragged in to cool off?!!
We banded together with Rivers Alive to clean up litter on the Chattahoochee River, surrounding roads and waterways.
Rivers Alive is sponsored by the State through the Adopt a Stream group. There were approximately 160 Clean-up events involving 20,000 volunteers across Georgia. More than any other Southern State!
We cleaned trash and debris from the river, including removing some logs and so on from the aerial sewer pipe in cooperation with the Keep Smyrna Beautiful group. Once we wrapped things up, we enjoyed a bountiful feast of hamburgers, not dogs, and veggie alternatives provided by the Sierra Club. Volunteers brought salads and desserts to share. It was great fun!
'Synching Up With the National Summit' General Meeting -- Aug 4, 2005
Kathryn, our Centennial Group Chair, facilitated a brainstorming session to solicit the membership's ideas of what issues the National Sierra Club should focus on in the coming year. She also shared with us which issues the attendees at last week's Ex Com meeting thought were most important. All these ideas were input into those presented by the Georgia delegates at the Sierra Summit in San Francisco on Sep 8-11, 2005.
Click here to see the Centennial Ex Com's suggested issues for the Sierra Club to focus on in the coming 5 years and what societal trends the membership feels impact the successful delivery of the Sierra Club's mission.
'Message From the Mountains' General Meeting -- June 2, 2005
Ranger Bob Kenan spoke about his experiences as a park ranger in Kings Canyon National Park in California. He presented his self-produced film "Message from the Mountains". It's a touching and heartfelt depiction of the people that come to this beautiful backcountry year after year and what it means to them. We had our largest turnout in many years, 55 people in attendance.
2nd Annual Rottenwood Creek cleanup
May 28, 2005
General Meeting
May 5, 2005
Mary Booth Cabot (r) discussed her garden and artwork. See her website.
A group of us toured the garden along the lake side.
Gunda Perry admires a piece of artwork in the studio.
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