Our fourth river clean-up in the St. Joseph area was on a beautiful spring day. With graduations and college letting out, it was a busy weekend for the town. We had a relatively small volunteer turnout, but the folks that came were fantastic. We had a bunch of old clean-up pros and some energetic new folks. 95 volunteers removed 1.2 tons of trash from 11 miles of the river!
With great help from the Mo. Dept of Conservation and Burns & McDonnell, we had enough boats that each boat could stay with its group, making for a more efficient event. In general we didn’t see as much trash as in the past. That’s due in part to several other local groups doing clean-ups along the Riverfront Trail and Riverfront Park. In fact, the Restoration Church was holding their Riverfront Park Rescue the same day as ours!
We also know that our efforts over the past several years have gotten rid of a lot of old trash deposits and dumps. Things are looking up in St. Joseph! This also meant we could push the limits of how far we could clean-up this time, and covered about 11 miles of river.
The St. Joseph area is a pretty narrow, channelized reach of river, with no sandbars or islands. And with the interstate taking up all the riverfront property downtown, the city is pretty physically disconnected to the river. This makes gems like the Riverfront Trail, French Bottom Landing and the Remington Nature Center all the more precious. And people love to come down to enjoy a river walk or sunset.
After the clean-up, the St. Jo Frontier Casino hosted lunch for all the volunteers. We held the trash contest in their banquet hall. Just perfect.
The Remington Nature Center allowed our crew to camp out in their "front yard", right next to the river. Such a convenient and beautiful spot to be. Plus, after the cleanup, our old friend Ken Reeder bought dinner for our whole crew overlooking the river at the casino!
Partial list of trash collected by our volunteers!
73 bags of trash
10 tires
4 chunks o’ Styrofoam
2 coolers
5 – 5-gal. buckets
3 ½ - 55-gal. plastic barrels
2 plastic garden tubs
2 refrigerators
1 large propane tank
2 chairs
1 serrated knife
1 chemical jug
6 roof shingles
4 pieces of metal cable
3 metal poles
7 pieces of corrugated metal
1 railroad spike
1 pieces of an alien airship
1 old fm receiver
1 tent
1 tent pole
1 rubbermaid tote lid
1 garden hose
1 industrial hose
1 40-foot boom
1 – 1000 gal. farm spray tank
4 chunks of plastic
3 plastic table pieces
1 bottle of Aspirin
1 locust thorn
1 cat skull
1 jaw
1 shelf fungus
1 plastic apple
1 terrarium in a glass bottle
1 can of carpet fresh
1 blue laundry bottle
1 ruler from Sutherland Lumber Company of St. Joseph
Media
Blogs
Total Volunteers: 95
Total Trash Tonnage: 1.2 tons
Groups Participating: Missouri River Relief Crew, Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri American Water, Burns & McDonnell, Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center, Missouri Stream Teams #1875, 1876, 4475, 4806, 211, St. Joe Youth Alliance, Mo. Master Naturalists of the Loess Hills, City of St. Joseph, St. Jo Frontier Casino, St. Joseph Regional Port Authority, Remington Nature Center, St. Joseph Convention & Visitor’s Bureau, John Wood & Herbie O’Keefe, River R. Reeder Foundation, Restoration Church
Fun Team Names: Master Naturalists, Piranha, One-A, Team Awesome, Beach Bums, River Sharks, Minnows, The Masters, AMF
Missouri Dept. of Conservation
St. Joseph Regional Port Authority
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Ecological Services Unit
Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources
St. Joseph Convention & Visitor's Bureau
John Wood & Herbie O'Keefe
River R. Reeder Foundation
Ken Reeder
