Group clears logs to make James River safer

A strainer in the James River is sort of like the one in your kitchen.

Except it can kill you.

To veteran paddlers and rescue experts, strainers are logs in swift water at or near the surface.

They can upset a small boat, or catch -- and drown -- a swimmer.

"It's like a strainer you use for your spaghetti," said Anne Catherine Jensen, a senior guide with Riverside Outfitters, a Richmond company that offers trips on the James. "The water will go through, but you won't."

Jensen, 34, spoke just before getting into a 14-foot blue raft in the James at Reedy Creek in South Richmond. She worked with three others from Riverside yesterday to clear strainers from two spots in the river.

They rafted about a mile down the river to a place called Pinball, a series of slots between rocks about 120 feet below the infamous Hollywood Rapids, Richmond's biggest torrent.

Veteran paddler Karen Abse died in that area when she got caught in a strainer in January 2006. Two logs, roughly 10 and 8 feet long, again posed hazards there yesterday.

As the others steadied the logs, Hunter Bezdan, 21, an employee of Truetimber Tree Service as well as a paddler, used a chainsaw to cut the logs into roughly 2to 3-foot sections. The sections drifted harmlessly down the river.

As the whine of the chainsaw topped the roar of the rapids, a small crowd gathered on the north bank of Belle Isle to watch.

Among the onlookers was Brian Pulley, 48, a member of Chesterfield County's scuba rescue team. Pointing out a man swimming in the rapids, Pulley said a lot of people underestimate the force of the James.

"It's all fun and games until you get swept down and you realize you really don't have a lot of control."

Of the workers, Pulley said, "This is a really good thing this group is doing."

About a half-mile downriver, in an opening in a dam at Brown's Island, the group removed a massive log about 25 feet long and 2 feet in diameter.

After the job was finished, guide Lewis Bailes, 57, said, "This really makes the river a lot safer to get down."

Contact Rex Springston at (804) 649-6453 or .