By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
GOWANDA — For 35 years Don Shelters of Cattaraugus has been leading annual cleanup efforts by the Zoar Valley Paddling Club of Cattaraugus Creek from Springville to Versailles.
This year the cleanup begins on Earth Day Weekend, Sunday, April 19, at 11 a.m., with participants meeting at the Aldrich Street bridge in Gowanda. They should be on the creek by noon and at the take-out in Versailles by around 5 p.m.
There will be an opportunity for snacks and drinks during the cleanup and a dinner afterward.
Shelters figures this year will be the 100th cleanup if you count three each year for 35 years.
Canoes and other paddle craft are welcome. There may also be space in one of the rafts. There are class II and III rapids on this section, requiring cold-weather gear and PDFs.
Call Shelters if you’d like to volunteer on the Cattaraugus Creek cleanup to discuss what you will need to bring. The club will supply the trash bags. The creek forms the border between Cattaraugus and Erie counties. It is a popular rafting, canoeing and kayaking destination and provides top-notch steelhead trout habitat.
Beverage containers and other trash are the most common litter, along with the occasional used vehicle tire.
Besides members of the Zoar Valley Paddling Club, the Seneca Nation of Indians will participate in the cleanup through the Cattaraugus Territory to Versailles.
The group meets in Gowanda where Shelters and his crew make sure everyone is dressed adequately and has an appropriate water craft.
As an avid white water paddler, Shelters has an armada of kayaks and rafts at his home in Cattaraugus that he uses to outfit the group. The group has permission from local land owner, Gary Sprague, to take out the boats and haul the trash to waiting vehicles.
In a recent interview with the Olean Star, Shelters said the cleanup coincides with National River Cleanup Week.
The cleanup is done in three sections: Gowanda to Versailles on April 19, Hammond Hill Road in Otto to North Otto Road at 10 a.m. on May 23 and Springville to Scoby Hill Dam and Hammond Hill Road at 11 a.m. on May 24.
“When we first started, there were a lot of dumpsites along the creek,” Shelters said. “They are mostly gone. People start to realize it’s not a dumping area and they carry stuff out.
A retired chemical salesman, Shelters is a Buffalo native who grew up in Cheektowaga. As a member of the Ski Patrol at Holiday Valley, one of his friends encouraged him to become a whitewater raft guide. “I always had respect for rivers.”
He became a raft guide about 40 years ago when you were lucky to see a bald eagle flying among the cliffs in the gorge. Now, he estimates, there are 30 eagles along the Zoar Valley gorge.
Shelters consider one of the biggest threats to the Cattaraugus Creek ecosystem is the clear-cutting of state forests along the Zoar Valley gorge buffer on both sides of the border. “It’s a money grab,” he states.
“The trees are as important as anything to me,” Shelters said. “That’s why it’s important to be aware. If you look at all the Indian stories, trees were always part of their wisdom.”
If you want to volunteer for one of the Zoar Valley Paddling Club’s cleanups on the creek, contact Shelters at (716) 474-9192.
