It had been since 2006 that we did a big canoe cleanup on the Missouri River. After this wonderful day, we're excited to do more.
An amazing group of paddlers showed up, staging their canoes then hopping on our school bus shuttle up to Katfish Katy’s. We had a full fleet of canoes lended to us from Central Methodist University, Columbia College and the Mo. Dept. of Conservation. We had 60 volunteers help out (including Roxy the river dog) and snagged 1.8 tons of junk, including 30 tires and a purple dinosaur sandbox. These folks worked it!
The goal in this event was for this fleet of canoes to head out, find trash, and haul it to places where our trashboats could get to it. In the morning we were attacking a mile ½ stretch of the river that always collects a ton of trash when the river is high (like it was about 11 times this spring and summer). Two of these spots were in coves created by dikes where our trashboats can’t go at this level.
A crew of our most experienced Missouri River paddlers took the first site. All the trash had to be hauled by canoe across the cove to a trail dike where we could load it in our boat. Other canoes headed to trash traps downstream and across the river to Airplane Island.
After a breezy and chilly lunch break on California Island (with hot chili cooked up by some of the River Relief crew), we continued downstream, with crews hitting every spot we had marked the day before and more.
We ended at Cooper’s Landing, who served up a fantastic dinner for the volunteers, with the Woodsmiths and Bruce Poe Band as the soundtrack. That fire was feeling pretty great!
93 Bags of Trash!
Plus...
30 Tires (1 Tractor)
1 Tire Rim
trash stash
1 Chunk
1 Styrofoam
1 Cooler
5 5-gal. Plastic Buckets
3 55-gal. Metal Drums
5 55-gal. Plastic Barrels
3 large Propane Tanks
3 pieces of Scrap Metal
roxy1 large Sheet Metal w/ Styrofoam
1 piece of Wet Carpet
1 Plastic Chunk
1 Gas Can
1 Basket Ball
1 Milk Crate
1 large Plastic Jug
1 plastic Car Part
1 Culvert section
1 big Sign
cinderella
1 steel Door w/ a cross on it
1 plastic Tub
1 metal Stove Door
1 large Gas Tank to a vehicle
1 Chair
1 wooden Sign
1 pallet
1 purple Dinosaur Sandbox
sturgeon
1 Cinderella Doll
1 Wire Fish Trap
1 Pink Chock
1 Orange Construction Fence
1 Fish & Wildlife Sturgeon DNA Sample
1 Toy Truck
Photos on Flickr (to download these, click the photo you want, click the download arrow to the right of the photo and select the size you want)
Total Volunteers: 60
Total Trash Tonnage: 1.8 tons!
