Come join us for a great day riding as well as a post ride BBQ!
Marked Arrowed loops – go at your own pace.
Grimley’s famous loops – 3 to choose from – 8, 14 mile or 18 miles.
$10 for Non-Members
$5 for Members
Demo Bikes available from – Stout(29er), Banchee, Ridley and Chumba
Blaze orange required – no exceptions
Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 8:00am
Browning Mill Parking lot
Remember, Orange required in the woods for all of May! Turkey Season
Another Big River Cleanup, 100 volunteers, 3-4 hours, 5 dumpsters ….. wow. Anthony took the lead this year with Al & I assisting in getting everyone out to projects as quick as possible.
thanks to all
RI Water Resources Board
West Greenwich Conservation Commission
this year the Rhodie Rovers put the pedal to the metal bringing a bobcat. Rich did a fantastic job taking down a number of rotted unsafe structures and getting everything in two dumpsters.
Alan (ri nemba) ran the vodo shake project, that was 5-8 truck loads of tires and other trash.
Matt (ri nemba) ran the tire dump project on Division, another 5 or more tire loads. The bob cat was also in play there.
I sent a assorted gang of mtbkers, jeep and truck guys as well as atv’s out to deeper sections of Big River to score stuff we’ll all looked at for years. We got all the stuff on the list
Bob (WGCC) managed the project by the Pickle Park & Ride.
Al (ri nemba) managed road side cleanup, sending groups all over the 19 square miles of BR management area.
thanks again to the Rhodie Rovers, the RC Club and the NE Association of 4 WD clubs for really pitching in this year.
huffin & puffin pete
Danger Lurking In the Trees
By Catherine Sparks and Frank Lowenstein
Picture this: you have lived in your neighborhood for decades and one morning you wake up to an unrecognizable scene: there are no trees on your entire block. Over the past year and a half, that is the nightmare many residents of Worcester, Massachusetts have experienced. Many of the city’s beautiful tree-lined streets have been turned into stark, naked concrete because of an insect smaller than your thumb– the Asian longhorned beetle.
You may find yourself asking, Why should Rhode Islanders care about an infestation in Massachusetts? The answer is that these beetles are uniquely aggressive and destructive, and educating yourself about how to identify and prevent the Asian longhorned beetle from spreading may help save your neighborhood.
Back in August of 2008, Donna Massie noticed a striking, shiny, black-and-white insect with long antennae in her Worcester backyard. Instead of ignoring it, Donna sought to find out what it was. Her curiosity sparked an effort that may save the forests of New England by eradicating the Asian longhorned beetle while it’s still limited to Worcester’s urban and suburban areas.
Native to Asia, the beetle bores into and kills many types of North American trees, including New England’s famous maple trees. Because the beetles didn’t evolve here, they have no effective natural predators in our forests and our trees have no evolved resistance to the beetles. The few tools that we can use against them are destructive and expensive, making prevention and early action the key to averting widespread devastation of backyard trees and wild forests. The efforts to stop the spread of the pest have so far focused on the removal of about 25,000 trees in a zone that includes six Massachusetts towns just 15 miles from Rhode Island.
Another attribute that makes the Asian longhorned beetle particularly devastating is that it eats virtually all hardwoods and it doesn’t mind traveling to reach its next leafy victim. One way that the beetle has been known to reach new areas is through the transportation of firewood.
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture has dedicated millions to expand programs to contain and eradicate the beetle, educating the general population about the situation is just as important. In an effort to shine a spotlight on the destruction caused by the Asian longhorned beetle, a new documentary called Lurking in the Trees is being aired on public television stations across the country, including Rhode Island.
You can help protect Rhode Island against the beetle by telling your friends about Lurking in the Trees and the importance of not moving firewood. By learning to recognize the signs of Asian longhorned beetles and keeping watch for them in your community you are helping to sustain the beauty of our New England landscape. You are also protecting the foundations of the region’s economy, including clean water, timber, maple syrup and tourism which gets a big boost from our fall colors.
If you think you have spotted the Asian longhorned beetle do what Donna Massie of Worcester did and call the Rhode Island Division of Forestry at (401) 647-3367. All of New England will thank you.
Catherine Sparks is the Rhode Island State Forester. Frank Lowenstein is The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Forest Health for North America. “Lurking in the Trees” is scheduled to air on Rhode Island PBS on April 8 at 10:30pm. For a complete list of air dates and for more information logon to www.lurkinginginthetrees.org.
Lots & Lots of trail work to do to fix Arcadia from the flood of 2010!
from Jim G:
Looking for volunteers to begin to clean up Arcadia with AMC.
Sunday April 11th, 9am at the entrance to Frosty Hollow Rd across from the White Church on rt 165.
Matt just sent some pics today 4/9/10
PS: note in pic 2, there’s a bike in the pic…. I put this post up 6 hrs ago and I did not see the scale on the damage in that photograph ~ wow