Michigan Waterways Stewards: Meet the New Coalition Conserving Local Waters

Longtime kayaker Mike Stout has paddled across Lake Michigan seven times and even did a solo trip across Lake Superior. But his latest endeavor might be his most ambitious – and impactful. 

A 1983 Michigan State University (MSU) graduate, Stout recently moved back to the Lansing area. Naturally, he began kayaking on the Red Cedar River and was shocked by the extent of the garbage and debris on the river. 

“It was just choked with litter and trees and stagnant pools of pollution,” Stout said. “I was appalled.”

In October 2022, Stout started reaching out to local, county and state offices that he believed may be able to help solve the problem. But after three separate letter writing campaigns, Stout was mostly ignored or met with apprehension. 

Finally, in November Stout was able to reach the president of a railroad company that oversaw a trestle bridge where there was an especially big build up of debris, which made the area dangerous to kayak. The president of the company quickly agreed to meet Stout at the location and upon seeing the issue, arranged to have a crew and equipment come by to help Stout clean up the site.

Stout had seen clean up efforts with a few volunteers picking up litter, but he was amazed by the progress that could be done by a large team with the proper tools. 

From here, a movement was born. 

Mike Stout is building a clean water coalition. 

To much of the greater-Lansing community, Stout was introduced when he spoke at a few East Lansing City Council meetings about the more than 200 electric scooters that he and other volunteers have pulled out of the Red Cedar River. 

Stout surveyed the community to show concern about the problem and tried to work towards a solution with the scooter company, Spin, though he had little success on that front. Eventually, Stout’s efforts paid off when the East Lansing City Council voted to permanently revoke Spin’s license to operate in East Lansing. 

But Stout’s impact extends far beyond the scooter issue and his individual efforts. He has assembled the Michigan Waterways Stewards, a nonprofit organization that manages a coalition of businesses, organizations and volunteers that clean up Michigan waterways. 

In the Michigan Waterways Stewards’ first year, 2023, it mobilized more than 850 volunteers and 50 organizations to clean up over 38 tons of litter and debris from local waters.  

Stout said this was possible because of “community spirit and civic pride.” He found once individuals and organizations were engaged in an opportunity to help, they wanted to be involved. 

Stout remembers discovering a buildup of garbage and debris on a bend of the Red Cedar River near the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house. Stout knocked on the house’s front door one night and spoke with a member. The member agreed the trash in the river was a problem and the fraternity worked with Stout to set up a clean up event. 

The relationship appears to be lasting, as the Delta Sigma Phi has already done another clean up event and is agreeable to doing more in the future. This is critical because the house is located on a bend of the river that naturally accumulates trash and debris that floats downstream. 

“I’m really impressed by just the energy, the engagement of the MSU student population,” Stout said. “They’re getting really involved.”

Stout has worked with several other university groups and conducted outreach to university officials.

Stout’s efforts helped reengage discussions of river conservation on campus, including the formation of the Red Cedar River Stewardship and Recreation Committee. The new group has held two meetings and is holding its first clean up event Friday, April 5, MSU Assistant Vice President for Community Relations Janet Lillie said. 

Stout’s community building skills are especially an asset in East Lansing. 

East Lansing Environmental Specialist Cliff Walls said there is not actually any city owned riverfront property on the Red Cedar River in East Lansing. This means if the city wants to do work on the river, it must partner with an entity bordering the river. Stout and Michigan Waterways Stewards are building awareness and a sense of responsibility to care for the river among these property owners. 

“The most important thing is that we really engage in the community, light an awareness of the problems, so they can be more mindful and then become owners of the problem and find solutions,” Stout said. 

Stout is stunned by some of the things he finds in the river. 

After seeing a father and son magnet fishing team pull dozens of scooters out of the Red Cedar, Stout and his team spent 17 straight weeks fishing out scooters and bicycles from the river. 

“Students have been tossing bicycles and refrigerator freezers in there for decades,” Stout said. “We’re finding things from the ‘50s, ‘60s.”

Much of Michigan Waterways Stewards work is done on a 13-foot catamaran that can carry more than 1,400 pounds. A catamaran is a type of ship that is especially stable and is sometimes used by rescue teams. It allows volunteers to pull in trash and large debris that regular clean up teams cannot reach. 

This is important because in addition to wreaking havoc on river habits, the large pieces of garbage and debris buildups Michigan Waterways Stewards remove are a safety hazard. A bicycle hidden underwater can flip a kayak. It could be life threatening if a person is snagged on something beneath the Red Cedar rapids. 

Stout has spent thousands of hours on the water and even he is nervous working in some stretches of the Red Cedar River. He worries about less experienced paddlers who may not know how to navigate the dangers of a river. 

“We should not have entangled metal and refrigerators and freezers and highway signage,” Stout said. “It’s not right, it’s not appropriate, it creates a personal safety risk.”

Michigan Waterways Stewards’ efforts in the Red Cedar River are another step towards restoring the river. 

Walls is encouraged by the results of Michigan Waterways Stewards’ events and the education the group is generating. 

A fisherman and paddler himself, Walls doesn’t like to see litter in the river. But he knows that keeping the river clean goes well beyond telling people not to throw garbage into the water. 

“Wherever you live, work and play, you’re still having an impact on those waterways,” Walls said. 

“These events that they’re putting on is really helping to engage people and help them think more about how their actions every day play a part into our local waterways.” 

Even miles from a river or lake, people are still in its watershed. Part of East Lansing is in the Red Cedar River watershed. Much of the runoff water in this watershed will funnel to the river, bringing trash, chemicals and debris it accumulates along the way, Walls explained . 

This means every plastic bottle that falls out of a car or jug of mostly-empty laundry detergent that blows out of an empty dumpster may make its way back to the lakes and rivers we swim and kayak in. This is a problem.
 

Plastic breaks down, which brings a variety of ecological challenges to a waterway. Among them is harm to wildlife. 

“You’ve likely seen pictures of birds that have eaten bottle caps and other small pieces of plastic thinking that it’s prey and then there’s no more room in their stomachs for actual food and they die,” Walls said. 

Now, Stout and Michigan Waterways Stewards are working to lessen this man-made harm, an important step in the restoration of the Red Cedar River. 

For decades, MSU has been working on helping the river in ways that are “invisible,” Walls said. The university has been making progress on water quality issues like  E. Coli and sediment management. 

“It’s never going to be a clear river, it’s not going to look like the Au Sable,” Walls said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not healthy. There’s been so much progress made towards some of those water quality, chemical-based, bacterial-based [issues] – there’s been a lot of improvements on those fronts over the decades.”

With the creation of the Red Cedar River Stewardship and Recreation Committee, Walls is excited to see how MSU expands its conservation efforts. 

He is also hopeful that the volunteers Stout brings in seek out new resources to expand their knowledge about local lakes, rivers and streams. He recommended residents check out the resources provided by the Greater Lansing Regional Committee for Stormwater Management website to find out more localized information.

Michigan Waterways Stewards is just getting started. 

Just over a year after being formed, the ball is rolling downhill for the Michigan Waterways Stewards. 

Clean up events are getting larger, organizations are now reaching out to Stout to see how they can help and while most efforts have been concentrated in the Greater Lansing Area so far, the movement is expanding.

Stout said the Eaton Conservation District reached out and is now working with Michigan Waterways Stewards to do an assessment on an invasive flora species in the Red Cedar River and Grand River. Michigan Waterways Stewards volunteers and others took pictures of Ficaria Verna on the river and searched for its source point. 

Stout is also working with several entities in Kalamazoo on an inaugural Kalamazoo River Trail Clean Up, and other restoration efforts on the Kalamazoo River. 

“Now we’re seeing our work be asked for across the state,” Stout said. 

The next step for Stout and Michigan Waterways Stewards is expanding its advocacy efforts. Stout wants to share what he’s seen with lawmakers and propose legislation that will protect bodies of water around the state. 

“The river is defenseless, right?” Stout said. “The fish and wildlife, whatever we throw at them they have to deal with.”