Smith River Cleanup

Volunteers once again gave back to the Smith River Saturday, August 6, 2011, as Gateway Streetscapes, Dan River Basin Association and Smith River Trout Unlimited combined forces for a clean sweep down a one mile section of the river, loading canoes, supplied for free by Smith River Adventures Outfitters, with everything from plastic bags to old tires.

“I think the river grows tires on the bottom down in this section,” said Lisa Hall, Trout Unlimited volunteer.
“There certainly were an abundance of tires littering the bottom of the Smith, we can’t get them all but we’ll get what we can in one day”, said Eric Capps of Gateway.
The section from Fieldale Bridge to the Fieldale Trail Canoe Ramp was selected as the target area. About 25 volunteers showed up to help out unfortunately, most were the same volunteers who show up whenever these events are done. “We haven’t figured out yet how to get all the “talkers” and other users of the resource off their butts to give back a little” said Al Kittredge. Seems like that attitude of “let the other guy do it” is what’s wrong with the country today.
A cookout was held after the clean-up to feed the group and plan for the next one! Our heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers for coming out to lend a hand in making this a cleaner place to live and play.