Dog River Park Blight

May 2009 - Kayak launch at Dog River Park - functional.

April 2011 - City of Mobile officials and Dog River Clearwater Revival officials designate the Dog River Park kayak launch as an official launch site of the newly dedicated Dog River Scenic Blueway. Launch site still functional.

January 2016 - The City of Mobile and Dog River Scenic Blueway group quit maintaining the Dog River Park Kayak Launch despite complaints. The newly dedicated Dog River Scenic Blueway kayak launch site is no longer functional because of blight.

And if you look closer at the Blighted Dog River Park Kayak Launch area you will see it is almost always polluted with trash because the City of Mobile still appears to have no plan to regularly remove trash from their park shorelines. No one cares if Dog River Park stays polluted with trash.

Shame on the City of Mobile Parks Department, Dog River Scenic Blueway Committee, Dog River Clearwater Revival, and ADEM. Shame on Mayor Stimpson who stood on the trashy shoreline of Dog River Park making a video about littering yet he cannot implement a simple plan to remove trash from the park shoreline every time the park is mowed.

A City that refuses to regularly pick up trash from their park property and refuses to mow around the Kayak Launch they helped officially dedicate is a City that does not care about its waterway environment.

And it is not just the Kayak Launch area of Dog River Park that is blighted. Easy to see Trash is ignored even in plain view of the park signage.

Dog River is one big Trash Chute to Mobile City Leaders and the community of Litter Chunkers. ADEM is obviously still ignoring the City of Mobile's continuing violations of State and Federal pollution laws.

Helen Wood Park Kayak Launch

It appears the Dog River Scenic Blueway committee proceeded with their plans to designate Helen Wood Park as an official Kayak/Canoe launch site. The new launch sign is up. Nice inviting sign to the unsuspecting kayaker.

Years ago someone dumped gravel along the shoreline on the park's north side making it a stable shoreline to launch a kayak from.

Today there is no sign of the gravel. The area is now overgrown with shoreline weeds because no one maintains the kayak launch site. To make matters worse, someone put out a line of concrete objects in the water now covered with sharp barnacles. People launching a kayak have a dangerous sharp obstacle to get over. Depending on the tide the concrete is sometimes submerged. Not a safe place to launch.

Of course, kayakers can try launching along Helen Wood Park's wooden bulkhead where often 1-2 foot waves from Mobile Bay pound with dangerous force. Not a safe place to launch.

The shoreline at Helen Wood Park is a dangerous area to launch a kayak from. I told the Dog River Scenic Blueway four years ago after doing extensive launch site research that Helen Wood Park was "not suitable" as a kayak launch. Especially when there are much safer places to launch from within about a mile of Helen Wood Park.

The Dog River Scenic Blueway group apparently got some grant money and they squandered it any way they could. Too bad the DRSB group can't find some grant money to maintain some of the kayak launch sites they developed and advertise.