By Lindsey Leve
This year has been a resounding success for Save The River’s Trash Free River program. Seven different cleanup events took place between April – September 2021. Locations included Fishers Landing, Cape Vincent, Wellesley Island, Chippewa Bay, Eel Bay and Grindstone Island.
Over 140 volunteers from many River and North Country communities joined Save The River staff and board members to help remove trash and debris from local shorelines. Local municipalities played a key role in each event to provide disposal of the trash collected.
In total these efforts were able to remove an estimated 750 lbs of trash that was collected and bagged. Each cleanup also produced larger items such as construction materials and scrap metal. 30 tires were also collected and properly disposed of.
*Mark Your Calendars*
2022 River Days
River-Wide Trash Free River Cleanup
July 29th & 30th
In addition to expanding our shoreline cleanup efforts we partnered with the Development Authority of the North Country (DANC) to promote their semi-annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day.
The Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day allows homeowners to properly dispose of items at no cost that are typically not able to go in the regular trash or accepted at local dumps.
The Jefferson County event took place on October 2, 2021 in Watertown, NY. Save The River participants will be awarded a free framed print of the image shown below as a token of our appreciation for removing dangerous chemicals from the river.
We are working with DANC for 2022 collection days and hope to grow this program. Stay tuned for spring dates!
These events and efforts were made possible by the Leonard C. & Mildred F. Ferguson Foundation and the and the Northern New York Community Foundation.