Category Archives: safety

Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water, Wildlife

Weekend cleanup on tap for American River Parkway

A cleanup this weekend will target the lower portions of the American River Parkway where homeless campers have left litter.

The American River Parkway Foundation is staging the cleanup on the stretch of land just east of the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers. The cleanup occurs between Mile 1 and Mile 3 on the parkway.

“It’s been more challenging to control the impact the homeless have had on the parkway, but we want to make sure that the community can come to this area and enjoy its natural resources,” said Dianna Poggetto, executive director of the foundation.

More at SacBee.com >>

 

Bike Trail, safety, Water, Wildlife

Fight looms over Sacramento’s fenced-off levees

Two rivers converge in Sacramento. By at least one important measure, however, they couldn’t be more different.

The American River provides wide-open public paths on both levees that frame it, all the way to Folsom Lake. A cyclist or an ambitious hiker can freely travel more than 30 miles along the river’s edge.

The Sacramento River, however, brings a walker or cyclist up short. From the confluence with the American River, the public path along the Sacramento runs about five miles, to 25th Avenue, where it abruptly ends in a locked gate spanning the levee. It is the first of 12 such impediments that chop up public access to the Sacramento River shore in the Pocket and Little Pocket neighborhoods.

The city of Sacramento is reviving a long-stalled plan to bring down the fences. The goal is an unbroken public path running another 10 miles to Freeport. The idea is stirring old emotions that kept the plan in the shadows for 15 years.

More at SacBee.com >>

Bike Trail, safety, Water, Wildlife

Army Corps of Engineers awards levee contracts

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District has awarded five levee construction contracts totaling $16.2 million to small businesses, the Corps announced Tuesday.

The projects aim to reduce flood risk along the American River in Sacramento.

The work will be done next year as part of a joint effort between the Corps, Central Valley Flood Protection Board and Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency. The projects will strengthen certain levee sites by installing water seepage barriers, widen and raise levee heights and improve erosion protection along the river.

“These levee projects demonstrate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s continued efforts in reducing Sacramento’s overall flood risk,” Col. Bill Leady, commander of the Sacramento District, said in a news release.

More at BizJournals.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

More rangers patrol for homeless along American River

Flashlights shine on a woman sleeping under a picnic table in Discovery Park.

Two Sacramento County Parks Rangers warn the woman twice that she is in violation of a no-camping ordinance.

After she gathers up two trash bags of belongings and moves to another location, the rangers prepare to write her a ticket.

“We’ll issue her a citation and tell her it’s time to go, but after that, we’re not going to forcibly remove anybody from the park,” park ranger William Wetzel said.

Beginning Wednesday evening, the parks department began deploying two additional rangers along the American River Parkway, bringing the total force to four or five rangers depending on the night.

More at KCRA.com >>>

safety

BASE jumper arrested after chute snags on tree

 

A BASE jumper who spent five hours suspended from a tree below the Foresthill Bridge was booked into Placer County Jail on misdemeanor charges.

Cal Fire dispatchers took the emergency call at 8:55 p.m. Monday from a friend of the jumper.

Raymond Alexander Arrieta, 26, was dangling from a pine tree about 100 feet above the American River Canyon.

At 731 feet above the American River North Fork, the Foresthill Bridge is the tallest bridge in California, and the fourth tallest in the United States.

Cal Fire used a bulldozer to widen an access road and brought in a PG&E boom truck to rescue Arrieta around 2:15 Thursday morning.

More at News10.net >>>

Bike Trail, Events, Rafting, safety, Video, Water, Wildlife

Hundreds Of Volunteers Join In 18th Annual American River Cleanup

 

Hundreds of volunteers were out scaling the American River on cleanup patrol.

The annual Great American River Cleanup in Rancho Cordova had thousands of volunteers on land and water Saturday.

“It’s mostly people dropping their stuff and not bothering to pick it up,” said a volunteer.

For 18 years in a row, the Great American River Cleanup covered a 23-mile span along the river in efforts to beautify the parkway.

“We have roughly 2,500 volunteers today,” said Stacy Springer, a volunteer manager.

More at CBSLocal.com >>>

Bike Trail, Events, safety, Water, Wildlife

American River Parkway Foundation offers ways to give back

On Saturday, Sept. 15, about 2,500 volunteers are expected to take part in the American River Parkway Foundation’s annual Great American River Clean Up.

According to Stacy Springer, volunteer manager for the American River Parkway Foundation, which is based in Carmichael, these volunteers will spend three hours that morning cleaning up 20 site locations along the American River of trash and other debris. “And that does not even include the huge kayak and dive teams that go out and address the shoreline and deeper water channels,” she said.

Springer said it’s easy to volunteer for the Great American River Clean Up – volunteers just need to register on the Foundation’s website, www.arpf.org, and then show up on the day of the clean-up wearing closed-toe shoes and long pants, plus sunblock and hat if the day is sunny and warm.

More at ValComNews.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

Coroner’s Office: Body found near American River was Linnea Lomax

The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office confirmed Friday night that the body of a woman found Friday morning near the American River was Linnea Lomax, who had been missing for 10 weeks.

The cause and manner of death are under investigation, but “foul play does not appear to be a factor at this point of the investigation,” according to a Coroner’s Office news release.

Lomax, 19, who grew up in Placerville, had been missing since June 26, when she left out-patient counseling at a clinic not far from where the body was found along the American River near Glenn Hall Park.

More at ModBee.com >>>

Bike Trail, safety

Update: Officials investigating whether body is that of missing UC Davis woman

A volunteer search party looking for a missing UC Davis student found a body along the American River and notified police this morning, sparking an investigation into whether the body is that of Linnea Lomax.

Sacramento police told The Bee that the group of searchers found the body at 10:18 a.m. along the river in the vicinity of Glenn Hall Park in the River Park neighborhood near Sacramento State — not far from where Lomax walked away from a mental health appointment more than two months ago.

Police spokesman Doug Morse said at a press conference shortly after noon that the body is that of a woman and shows signs of decomposition. Authorities say the age of the woman is not yet clear and that they do not know how the woman died.

More at SacBee.com >>>