When you go down the river for a daily float you will see the random trash and I pick it up on your way down. Once you are there to actually clean the river you then see all the hidden trash that has been left behind or floated downstream. I don’t know if this area of the river has been cleaned before but from what we got out of a small area I’m guessing it hasn’t been cleaned for many years.
Sioux Falls Whitewater Park conducted their first river clean up on The Big Sioux River at Lien Park in Sioux Falls South Dakota. On Tuesday September 16, 2014 5:30 pm we had a total of six volunteers. Two were working the river by boat and the other four were working the banks of the river. We were fortunate to have Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation donate bags and rubber gloves for us. They also provided us with trash pickup so we just needed to pile the trash in a designated area. We chose Lien Park first because this is the area that is best fit for a whitewater park. Lien Park has flow from Skunk Creek, Sioux Falls Diversion Dam, Silver Creek and the Big Sioux River. This area also doesn’t complete freeze either so it could possibly be used year round in the correct gear.
With six people we were hoping to cover a good area. Soon as we started it was clear we were going to have a big job ahead of us. We covered about 400 feet of the north river bank and came out with 28 bags of trash, tire, old lawn chair, some piping, and some car parts. We stopped around 7:30pm because we were losing day light. This area was mainly full of old aluminum cans and plastic shopping bags.
Here are some pictures of spots we were not able to get to because of daylight availability. As you can see trash accumulated in this strainer. We hope to get out there with a grain shovel with drilled holes to pick up the majority of this and maybe take care of this strainer.
If you have been down the Big Sioux River in town this fall you are aware of the garbage lining the banks. SFWP hopes to conduct 3-4 clean ups in 2015 to get a handle on this. We hope to see more people out there as our organization grows.
If you have questions, concerns, areas of rivers that need attention, or would like to take part in this great cause. Please email us at info@siouxempirepaddlers.org or message us on Facebook Sioux Falls Whitewater Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment