Boonville Missouri River Cleanup 2017

Franklin Island Conservation Area - Boonville, MO
Saturday, October 21st, 2017

A wonderful group of community members, students, families, stream teamers, and river lovers of all ages turned out to clean-up the Missouri River at Boonville on a lovely day in October! A total of 257 volunteers removed a collective 2.4 tons of trash from the banks of the Big Muddy by motorboat and the Lamine River by canoe!

Volunteers from all around the region worked throughout the morning to clean-up two rivers, the Missouri River by motorboat and the Lamine River, a tributary of the Missouri River, by canoe. A beautiful morning greeted the smiling faces of the volunteers as they arrived for a morning packed with river adventures!

Twenty-one die-hard stream team volunteers cleaned up two stretches of the Lamine River via canoe, while hundreds of groups and individuals braved motorboat rides to locations up and down the Missouri River where they spent a couple of hours gathering all the litter they could find. Volunteers also dispersed thousands of milkweed seeds, helping to cultivate a native wild plant that is vital to the survival of the enigmatic migratory Monarch Butterfly.  

All the volunteers gathered back at Franklin Island at noon for a hot chili lunch with all the fixins', live music by Pippa and the Strawmen, and a lively trash contest. Check out the trash tally below for a list of all of the surprising and strange finds from the day.

After lunch and much celebration, a dedicated crew of volunteers went back out by river to retrieve the tons of trash and a land crew worked for hours to sort the trash into loads bound for the landfill and the Boonslick Industries' local recycling plant. All in all, a fun-packed and successful Missouri River Clean-up in Boonville!!

Huge thanks to all of the hard-working folks who helped on all fronts, our sponsors, our partners, agency boat operators, the MRR volunteer crew, the folks working behind-the-scenes doing the myriad of necessary tasks to make it happen, and especially OUR VOLUNTEERS!!!!!  

Trash Tally:

161 Bags Trash!! - Plus all of these:

1 18-wheeler tire w/out rim
1 18-wheeler tire on rim
1 tire w/out rim
10 tires on rims
1 6” fat trailer tire on rim
1 inner tube
1 car spoiler
2 truck running boards
1 red canoe
1 50’ x 2 ½” poly-dacron tow rope
1 dock section
1 Freon tank
1 propane tank
1 large tarp
2 fence posts
1 window well weight on rope
1 section white plastic lattice
3 thick rubber mats
1 plastic tabletop
1 rolling office chair
1 blue glass bottle
1 brown glass bottle with dollar bill inside
1 250-gallon plastic farm tank (full of ashes and metal filings)
7 5-gallon plastic buckets
5 plastic tubs
1 10-gallon metal bucket (a really nice shade of blue)
1 2-gallon plastic mop bucket
2 50-gallon plastic barrels (one with lid)
4 50-gallon metal barrels
1 5-gallon bottle liquid humic acids (full)
2 bank-fishing poles
1 ½ fishing pole
1 fistful fishing line
1 duck decoy
1 PVC pipe
2 construction boards
1 pair pruning loppers
2 hunks heavy metal
8 braided steel cables (one 6’ in length)
1 casing for electrical board
1 dishwasher
1 tube TV
1 bowling pin
16 light bulbs (varying from headlights to small decorative lights)
5 electrical wires
7 medicine bottles
48 balls (including a Blue Valley, KS high school soccer ball)
1 bookend
2 porcelain figurines (male and female) with heads missing
1 tiny space ship
1 Lego man
1 baby rubber chicken
1 huge blue plastic bag (empty, marked Missouri Stream Team)

Canoe Clean-up Trash Tally: 

17 Bags Trash!! (total weight approximately 290 pounds) - Plus all of these:

1 18-wheeler tire w/out rim
2 tires w/out rim
1 25-gallon bucket
1 5-gallon plastic bucket
3 chunks scrap metal
2 lengths rebar
1 trailer shock
1 5’x7’ piece sheet metal
1 length hydraulic hose
1 tackle box
1 plastic egg
1 orthopedic shoe
1 plastic eating utensil tray
1 chamber pot
1 tube TV
1 headlight
1 light bulb
8 balls
1 antique brown bottle with dollar bill inside

Trash Contest Submissions

Best Animal Find:

Turtle shell
Fish spike
Dear jaw
“Beaver turtle”
Winner – Turtle with neck & head

Weirdest Trash:

Headlight
Clock box
Baby carriage
Winner - Dollar bill in brown medicine bottle

Biggest Trash:

Tiny man
Tow cable
Winner – Tow truck

Oldest Trash:

Tennis ball
Styrofoam chunk
Winner – Concretion Bivalve Fossil

Best Muddy Ball:

Deflated soccer ball
Tennis ball
Giant golf ball
Jayhawk basketball
Tiny basketball
Winner – Soccer ball from Overland Park, KS High School (talk about trash from upstream!)

Most Likely to be Used as a Weapon:

Squirt gun
Rocket
Little red plane
Winner – Shark

Most Artistic Trash:

Driftwood
Plastic starfish
Winner – Bookend

Most Fashionable:

Eye
Knuckle buster
Old hubcap
Perfume
Winner – Finger trap

Most Useful Trash:

Can of soda, unopened
#2 Sharpie, still good
Small bottle of vodka
Baby bottle
Broken hanger
Winner – Giant light bulb

Best Darned Find of the Day:

Depression era glass bottle
Christmas light bulbs
Electrical socket
Winner – Sculpture of Indian goddess & god