Earth Day weekend was the perfect time to hit the Confluence of our nation's two longest rivers: the Mississippi and Missouri, and clean-up all the junk that's floated in.
This year is the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis - yet another reason to celebrate these two amazing rivers that are the reason St. Louis is where it is. 2014 also marks the 25th anniversary of Missouri Stream Teams!
On a gorgeous Saturday morning, 178 volunteers teamed up at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area boat ramp to help clean-up 9 miles of the Missouri & Mississippi Rivers. Over 200 bags of trash were collected, along with tons of scrap metal, appliances, and other materials including a fiberglass boat from 1957!
A huge thanks to our agency partners who provided boats at the clean-up to help shuttle volunteers: we were joined by the Mo. Dept. of Conservation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in addition to our 4, plus a personal trash hauler that joined us from Hanson Professional Services.
Stream Teams, families and college students came out in full force, along with environmental clubs, scout troops, corporate teams, and more to clean up nearly 5 tons of trash. What an amazing group effort!
After bringing the volunteers back for lunch the River Relief crew worked on hauling back all of the trash. We enjoyed a fun trash contest, and some great tunes by Eddie Buchanan & Co.!
Check out the full trash tally and photo essay on our Rivernotes Blog. To see the mish mash of photos from the clean-up, be sure to check out our Flickr or Facebook pages.
It takes a real leap of faith to get down & dirty on the Mighty MO and we can't thank our St. Louis sponsors, partners and volunteers enough for all of the support!
201 bags of trash
30 tires
11 chunks o’ Styrofoam
4 coolers
11 5-gal. plastic buckets
1 20-gal. plastic tub
12 55-gal. plastic barrels
2 55-gal. metal drums
4 partial metal drums
1 water heater
1 propane tank
1 AC unit piece
1 600 lb Automotive Transformer
1 boxspring
1 - fiberglass Saber boat from 1957
2 barge lines
1 buoy
1 car seat cushion
4 gas tanks
1 yellow piggy bank
1 dead snake dead from plastic netting wrapped around it
1 dead gar
1 studded football massage ball
2 armless baby dolls
A full trash tally and results can be found on our Rivernotes blog!
Crew Posts:
Total Volunteers: 178
Total Trash Tonnage: 4.7 tons
Groups Participating: The Missouri River Relief Crew, MO Dept. of Conservation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hanson Prof. Services, Cub Scout Pack 97, Cadette Girl Scout Troop #435, Baden Powell Service Association 66th Confluence Scout Group, Anderson Pest Solutions, bioMerieux, Alpha Phi Omega- Washington University, Ethical Navigators 33, Bank of America, St. Louis University, Boeing, Arnold Stream Team 211, Stream Team 3454 Anglers of Missouri, Saving the World Before Noon, Miramiguoa Master Naturalists, Weber Group, Kabul Waterdogs-Stream Team 3419, Stream Team 4855, Pack 3097, Stream Team River Rovers #4473
Fun Team Names: Flying Carp, X-Stream Team, Pack 97, Navigators, A-Team, Super Flying Ninja Kittens, Asian Carp Avengers, Anderson, River Dogs, Otters, Mo Mud Hens, Timberwolves, The Bass Fisherman, 66th Confluence Team, Hardcore Team Tough Guy, The Collaborators, River Rebels, Team Smokinbarrel
Missouri Dept. of Conservation
Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Columbia Ecological Services Field Office
Pat Jones
Tom and Anne Smith
Missouri Stream Team (Celebrating its 25th Anniversary!)
Bridgestone/Firestone - One Team, One Planet
Columbia Bottom Conservation Area
Black Gold Recyclers
Team Smokin Barrel
Live Music during lunch by Eddie Buchanan & Co.!
With the support of the National Park Service, we published our Big River Cleanup Manual, sharing our 13 years experience hosting cleanups on the Missouri River. Click here for more info and to download a copy.
More than 30% of our budget comes from generous donations from individuals like you! You can donate easily and securely to Missouri River Relief here.
