Floating island...NOT!

So today I told Ber that we had to see something new in the park, as I am getting tired of reporting on trash, trash, and more trash, in between beautiful scenery and lots and lots of geese. there we were in a corner of the Peninsula meadow, checking out a dead raccoon (This one had been for quite a while and was rather rotted away. We saw Tony who said that every dog in the park knew about that one. Don't know how we missed it, and it did stink.), anyway, checking out the dead raccoon, when I heard a noise in the water, looked up, and saw the Lake Mess Monster coming 'round the bend, pulling an island!!! Got some great little videos of the moving island. It had trees and grass and flowers on it. The boat pulled the island to shore - it turns out to be an overgrown dock! Many years ago there must have been a nice little dock on the lakeside - styrofoam underpinnings, etc., but it has long since been overgrown with trees, phragmites, and tons of stuff - blankets, cans, clothing, etc., homeless people must have been living there for years, probably until it burned a few months ago. Martin (from Prospect Alliance) said he had pulled out out from the phragmite area that we'd worked on on Park Clean-up Day, and stuck it in a corner of the lake until he could figure out how to get rid of it.

So today, here it was, and so were a bulldozer, truck, dumpster, and about half a dozen people. What a job getting it out of the water, broken up, and into the dumpster! We took lots of pictures and will post the best ones. It was really exciting watching a complicated operation such as this one - getting the thing out without having it come apart into many pieces and not letting the machinery roll into the lake, where it would have been stuck in the muck. They tried not to let too much of the styrofoam into the water.

I'm posting the videos today, and will put up still pictures tomorrow. The first video ( if I have my ducks in order) is the early view of the floating island being pulled by the weed whacker (Lake Mess Monster's other name). The second is getting it close to shore. The third is the human effort to land it at the boat launch site near the wellhouse.

We certainly saw something new!!!!!!!!!