STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The beer keg volunteers pulled out of the Big Wood River still had beer in it. They found a tractor tire in the river alongside Heagle Park and a 65-gallon oil drum elsewhere.
There also were scads of cellphones, dog balls, metal strips, a big tow strap and even an old mining sluice.
Seventy volunteers amassed 135 hours collectively during The Wood River Land Trust’s fifth annual Big Wood River Clean Up last week, removing 1,440 pounds of trash from the Big Wood River and its banks.
Last year volunteers put in 93 hours extracting 1,020 pounds from the river.
“This was a record-breaking year for the amount of trash we cleaned up and in terms of the numbers of volunteers who helped out,” said Ryan Santo, river program director for the Wood River Land Trust.
Brighten Price watched as her 11-year-old son Diesel climbed into a mess of dead cottonwood branches to retrieve trash that had been trapped there. He looked like a bird in a nest as he did a deep dive into the epicenter.
Her 13-year-old daughter Persia Franz found a shoe and 8-year-old Phenix Franz found a T-shirt.
“When we talked about doing the cleanup this last night, Diesel said it was good idea to do the cleanup because ‘it’s good to keep Earth clean,’ ” she recounted.
Price added that the cleanup was a great activity to get the kids involved in the community.
“I want my kids to contribute to make the world a better place. This is where we belong and this is what we do. We just want to be good people and to give back—isn’t that what we all want?”
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY AGAIN!
The Wood River Land Trust is seeking volunteers on Oct. 12 to help plant cottonwoods along the banks of the Big Wood River in the Colorado Gulch area. Volunteer will also spread wildflower seeds and junk up the restoration road with dead wood.
The Land Trust just completed a major river restoration project there to remove rip-rap, enhance floodplain habitat and reconnect historic side channels.
The exact time is yet to be announced. Keep posted at https://woodriverlandtrust.org/connect/calendar/post-river-restoration-volunteer-day-at-colorado-gulch?blm_aid=35372