The Clean Sweep 2026 - Shift 5 Summary

Highlights:

• 8/31      Moving Day: Packed up camp and moved downstream below the Grand River

• 9/1        Crew Cleanups upstream of the Grand River

• 9/2        Crew Cleanups downstream of the Grand River between camp and Dalton Bottoms Access

• 9/3        Dalton Bottoms volunteer cleanup

• 9/4        Crew Cleanup downstream of Chariton River (lots of trash!)

• 9/5        Packed up camp and moved downstream above Glasgow

Years ago, I learned a couple phrases through Missouri River Relief programming and a bumper sticker proudly displayed on my work computer.

“See You on the River,” and, “We All Live Downstream.”

In my day-to-day “real life,” I revised them to, “Catch You Downstream!”

Little did I know that my journey to the 2026 Big Muddy Clean Sweep would include catching so many mysterious and unknown journeys of the hundreds of thousands of individuals with whom I share this waterway.

---

“We used to drive to a random stretch of road, survey the trash and other refuse in the ditches and paint a picture of the community.

     With every bottle, can, or container…
          I see our necessities.
          I see our mundane.
          I see our virtues and vices.
          I see and feel our needs, wants, and desires.

As the swirls of this eddy gurgle beneath the stars and echoes of the owls waking to the night down a few miles of the Grand River on Day 23 of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep, I am brought back to the thought I ponder with every step on the high bank, rack pile, or muddy bank—we are just visitors to this river that sustains us, defines us, and reflects us.

The question that follows, “What will those who follow think of us?”

The echoes of those who stewarded these lands long before Lewis and Clark and Sakakawea may be more distant and quiet than those of the Corps of Engineers directing those who placed riprap by hand or drove piles or weaved willow nets…

But, as Venus encourages her stars to join the night…

I remember that while we attempt to guide these waters, there is still power in the water to guide us—when we let it.

I’ve seen thru paddlers from Montana stop by as they finish their 110-day trip to St. Louis and accompanied a team who did the same trip in 25.

I’ve shadowed the participants of the MR340 pour theirs and their loved ones’ blood sweat and tears into the current.

I’ve seen a jetski scout for a houseboat looking for good sand to camp.

I’ve seen hundreds of folks flock to the river on July 4^th weekend.

I’ve also seen local fishers setting and checking lines at all hours of the morning and night.

I’ve seen tugboats move barges of grain and asphalt more miles than we know to regions beyond my imagination.

I’ve seen volunteers by the hundred place trash into a bag to ready the river for another person’s enjoyment.

Even in the remote regions below the Grand where trash deposits were initially difficult to find, we saw the likes on social media and receive the gratitude of local community members. Every day was a continual meditation on every water bottle, mineral tub, tire, refrigerator, piece of foam, or mini-bottle we handpick into bags to add to our totals.

How many steps and handpicked efforts from our crew and volunteers sweating through heat advisories does it take to get to 1.7 tons?

As we wrapped our community cleanup, we convened under the shade of a mighty cottonwood clinging to its leaves of green as the sweltering heat remained. With our “River Trash Science” giving minimal returns, we asked, “Should we pack up and move downstream early?”

The early evening shade and primo swimming hole to mitigate the heat was difficult to give up, but we have a job to do.

With one boat headed down to scout possible campsites and the others headed back to camp, we steeled ourselves for the possibility of a sweltering camp and larger hauls of trash downstream. Mud’s nose for trash sites, however, led him to check the high bank just downstream of the ramp and Chariton River. In a few minutes, Mud returned with a verdict, “Two thumbs up and a big muddy toe!” Moving day could wait another day.

The next day, the crew picked, lugged, and tossed 29 more bags of trash to double our week’s work on this stretch. And yes, we picked up a few more mini-bottle bad decisions.

So, at the halfway point of the Big Muddy Clean Sweep and a well needed break for Labor Day, I continue to wonder…
     What do we want to catch downstream?
     What do we want to see?”
     How do we create an environment that sustains us, defines us, and reflects us in a way that we want to be remembered?

Influences and Suggested Reading

• The Overstory by Richard Powers
• The Great River: the Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi by Boyce Upholt
• The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green