By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
An effort to clean up the Missouri River in St. Joseph gets underway Saturday.
Missouri River Relief sponsors clean-up efforts up and down the Missouri, from Omaha to St. Louis.
Alyssa Thomas with Missouri River Relief says many who volunteer receive a bit of a shock about what is pulled out of the Missouri River.
“Everyone’s pretty surprised, especially their first time out on the river,” Thomas tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “As an organization that does this pretty consistently, we’re not really surprised by anything anymore. But we have a little activity we do call the trash contest. When we send volunteers out, we ask them to bring some cool finds that they find.”
The Saturday morning clean-up begins at nine o’clock at the French Bottom river access. As many as 150 volunteers will work to fish trash out of the Missouri River over a 10-mile stretch. The clean-up will take about two hours. Volunteers will be fed lunch.
Thomas says too many people fail to understand the importance of the Missouri River.
“It’s our drinking water for a lot of Missourians,” Thomas says. “It’s a resource that we should be protecting and a lot of people need to be aware of that.”
Missouri River Relief sponsors river clean-ups from Omaha to St. Louis.
Thomas says the aim of the effort is two-fold: clean up the Missouri River and connect people with the Missouri.
“We are doing something big as far as cleanups go,” Thomas says. “We pull out tons of trash, but also, the best results come from people getting out there, experiencing an amazing resource that they probably have never been out on before; taking that back home to their community, spreading that awareness.”
Missouri River Relief works with the Missouri Department of Conservation as well as the City of St. Joseph and Buchanan County. Sponsors of the project include Spire, Missouri American Water, and Hy Vee. Its partners include Beautify St. Joseph, Sustainable Environmental Action Committee of St. Joseph, St. Joseph Water Protections, the Missouri Stream Team, and the Missouri River Bird Observatory.
The Missouri River Bird Observatory will conduct an audit of the trash pulled from the river in an effort to determine is origin.
Click HERE for more information on volunteering.
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