Completion of First Phase, Shenango River Water Trail

You’ve been following our 4-year effort to open the channel of the upper Shenango River (from the dam at Pymatuning State Park) to Greenville’s Riverside Park. We fought our way through the bureaucratic hurdles, environmental restrictions, garnered support from the community and political entities, and of course raised $71,000 to do the work.

We had planned to begin the tree work this May, but were frustrated by the unusually high water experienced well into June. We reset a start date of August 1. On that day, two teams of Amish loggers and their wonderful draft horses went to work. They were directed daily by Jim Donnachie, a professional with Meadville Land Services, Inc. A Shenango River Watcher member gave directions or recommendations throughout the month where needed. read more ...

The horse teams were corralled in temporary camps along the river while the work progressed. When it was time to move farther downstream, they simply walked down the river to the next site.

For two or three days, within Pymatuning State Park, a log skidder was needed to augment the "horse power." With a steep vertical bank perhaps 5-6 feet above the water level, the horses could not lift the head of a large tree trunk above the bank. The skidder did the vertical lift, and the horses then pulled the logs into the forest for disposal. After that, the loggers and the powerful Belgian horse teams did all work.

What little damage to the forest floor was done by the skidder was repaired, seeded, and covered. The horse teams made no impact on the river, riverbank, or fields and forests.

Throughout the month, as the loggers moved downstream, landowners were uniformly pleasant, helpful, and generous. Land-use was offered for corrals, cattle kept in barns while work was done around their pastures, lunch spontaneously provided to the workers, and so forth. People could not have been more supportive and cooperative.

The job was completed on time and in fact under budget. By the end of August, we announced the river was open for business. It was at least 30 years, and maybe longer, when that condition could be asserted.

To celebrate the accomplishment, we quickly threw together an event we called "PaddleFest 2011." Our goal was to have 100 canoes and/or kayaks on the river on October 1. We provided a free shuttle from Riverside Park back to Pymatuning State Park’s put-in. Anderson Tours, Frye Transportation, and St. Paul’s Community provided busses. Hot-dogs were funded by the Jamestown Lions Club (and purchased from Livingston Meats at a discount), Greenville Wal-Mart kicked in $50.00 for more groceries, a SRW member provided buns, and the SRW’s provided drinks. Klink Environmental Services placed two porta potties and a hand washing station in Riverside Park, and somehow got another porta potty on the riverbank, about midway down the river on the Miller farm. The Jamestown VFD’s Water Rescue team agreed to join the float to protect paddlers.

We posted and emailed flyers, called other paddling clubs, posted info on Facebook, networked, and otherwise got the word out as best we could, given the time constraint. A few weeks before the day, we were nervous, then got encouraged, and finally terrified. The response was frankly overwhelming. Then came the weather: several days of 40-50 degree weather with substantial rain caused many to call and say in effect, "sorry."

The early morning of Saturday, October 1 was as bad or worse than the preceding days. Some of us thought we’d be lucky to have 10 paddlers. About 8:00 a.m., to our shock and surprise, paddlers started pouring in to the put-in to drop off their boat and go on to Riverside Park for the shuttle back.

With most of the boats on the shore, but the paddlers going to get the shuttle, we counted over 120 canoes or kayaks! DCNR/Parks provide about 24 kayaks for those without, we had our 10 canoes available, and of course most paddlers had their own boat. With a modest break in the weather, we’re sure we’d have had 175-200 watercraft participating. One measure of participation is the fact that we served over 180 hot dogs!

The Pymatuning Park staff was out in full force at both ends of the float, led by their Naturalist Educator Linda Armstrong and Park Manager Pete Houghton. Pete cracked open the dam gates, insuring us enough water for a fast and viable float.

Jamestown Lions assisted at the take-out, standing in the water and guiding each boat to an easy and feet-dry landing. One of the SRW wives, Tamara Clark, and several of her friends, did the food serving. Riverside Park maintenance staff, helped by some from the Greenville Borough road crew, made the pavilion/park bench set-up easy and removed trash.

What’s next? The same thing all over again for the lower half of the river, from Riverside Park to the Big Bend take-out near Hamburg. Stay tuned…