Protect. Advocate. Discover.

Chasing the Channel- Blog No. 35

Tires, River Checks, and the Start of our Season!

If you were to take a survey of our Kaw River Guides, you would find that many have a favorite section of the Kansas River. Maybe they grew up there, maybe it was the first time they were on the river, but regardless they would tell you that they know it like the back of their hand. That’s how I feel about the stretch of the Kansas River from Eudora to DeSoto. I have spent countless hours on the river there during my childhood and into my adult years…fishing, canoeing, and camping. We had a jon boat that we motored up to our favorite fishing hole to catch big catfish when I was young.  We had a sandbar just off the farm where we would camp for the night. We had a huge family and friend canoe float back in the late 70’s and early 80’s that included my husband and his family and many of our friends. This was our stretch of river and I’ve known it my entire life. I know every curve, every sandbar, every tributary.  When I started this job over 10 years ago, I was ready to clean up the river.  I knew the old dump sites, tires, and scattered debris. I was ready to do my part to leave it a better place for my family. My family has been deeply rooted in the Kaw River Valley in DeSoto for over 150 years and I am proud to call it home. 

We have removed over 4,000 tires from the Kansas River in the last five years. The tires are often what we call “failed bank stabilization projects,” meaning that the tires were placed to protect the farms along the river as bank stabilization. What we now know is that tires do not hold the bank – only native trees and deep-rooted grasses do that work.  So here we are decades later and all these tires are pushed out of the banks and into sandbars every time we get a big flood. Think about 1993 and 2019 as examples of tires shifting and moving with the force of the river. So that’s how we got here.  Now how to fix it.

About six years ago, I made a bold goal that Friends of the Kaw would remove all the old trash and dump sites from our river. I knew it was a heavy lift – literally – but I also knew that our Kaw River Guides and partners were up to the challenge. We are well on our way, but the site of tires in my home stretch has been a challenge. We have so far removed 467 tires from this one site between Eudora and DeSoto. We have about another 250 to be removed and we estimate another couple hundred that we have not even pulled out of the river yet.  It is hard to imagine that one site could have close to 1,000 tires! 

Cleaning up rivers is physically hard, logistically challenging, and expensive. Thank you to everyone that has sponsored the events or donated – every dollar makes a difference, just like every tire makes a difference. A heartflet thank you to every volunteer Kaw River Guide that has pulled tires out. Thank you for making our work happen! 

Spring is here….and that means cleanups, water quality education, restoration work, and educational paddle trips!  We love spring here at FOK….don’t get me wrong, we are all exhausted beyond exhausted at the end of October each year, but around February we begin to recover and we are ready to go again! Often, we get asked if winter is our slow season, and the answer is NO – there is never a slow season but the seasons are vastly different. We just spent the winter planning for the season, writing grants, fundraising so that our work can continue, getting our first aid and wilderness training up to date, repairing gear, did I say write grants?  The work of a non-profit is never done, but we do find great purpose in our work and our mission.  We sleep good at night knowing we are doing good work.

Joey hosted our first water quality education workshop in March and we are thrilled to have some new volunteers ready to go. This education program is one of our sources of pride, knowing that we are educating the next generation about water quality. Joey kicked off the season at Eudora and has many classes lined up this spring. We are excited to hear from the students!

Our annual Kaw River Guide Workshop is coming up on May 3^rd.  If you have ever thought about joining us as a Kaw River Guide, just come to this workshop to learn more. This is not a commitment, but an opportunity for you to see if you wish to volunteer and give back in this way. We have a very welcoming and inclusive group and I hope you will consider joining us. You can learn more here, including the link to RSVP: https://kansasriver.org/get-involved/volunteer/kaw-river-guide/.  Please reach out to me at riverkeeper@kansasriver.org if you have questions. I’m happy to help! 

We are wrapping up the final work days for our Riverbank Restoration Project! The last work day is May 15 in Eudora.  It is hard to believe that this project is coming to an end.  I remember starting the first Riverbank Restoration Project in 2018 with Courtney of Native Lands.  We met at a networking event and hit it off instantly and started brainstorming about how we could work together.  We decided that native plants and rivers go together – protecting water quality – and from there our work began.  It has been a great ride!  Kim has done an amazing job of taking this project and others in ways that have greatly benefited the Kansas River. While we do not have a new project of this kind coming up anytime soon, we do hope to incorporate work like this into future projects. When we protect the watershed of the Kansas River, we protect the drinking water source for over 950,000 Kansans. 

If you’ve made it this far – thank you for hanging in there with me on my rambling blog posts. Our big cleanups are coming up and we hope you can join us.  Each of our big river cleanups has a river portion for our Kaw River Guides and a bank cleanup for the public. We welcome both families with young children and those that like to climb steep areas and get filthy.  There is always something for everyone to do to help.  Save the dates – April 19 we will be in Lawrence to celebrate Earth Day; May 10 in Manhattan; and June 14 in Topeka.  You can learn more here and RSVP:  https://kansasriver.org/cleanup-schedule/

Lastly, I must mention our Spring Day of Giving, scheduled for Earth Day on April 22, 2025.  We hope that you will consider a gift to Friends of the Kaw to support all this important work that we have scheduled this year.  As always, it is because of you that we can do this work.  If you want to donate early, you can do so here: https://kansasriver.org/donation/?did=1

Well…are we ready for river season?  Ready or not, let’s go!  Please join us for Beginner Wednesday or Beginner Camping (https://www.eventbrite.com/o/friends-of-the-kaw-17751155327), a river cleanup, or just drop by the boat ramp when we have an event and say hello! Honestly, that is one of our favorite things is when people stop us to say hello. We always have our FOK gear on, so you should be able to spot us.  Say hello, tell us a story about your connection to the Kansas River!

As we start the season, I truly hope that you have sand in your shoes.

For the river,
Dawn Buehler

Kansas Riverkeeper