River Clean Ups: How You Can Help

You can help the environment by removing garbage from within or along a stream or river. Since volunteers can be of almost any age and most of the supplies you will need can be found at home, your clean up effort might be as simple as taking a garbage bag along with you as you paddle a stretch of your local river or stream.

If you are interested in planning a clean up event for your community, you can download the river clean up packet (1.28mb pdf file*) that includes information about planning a river clean up for a group, including things to think about well in advance of your planned event.

For instance, sometimes you’ll need to get permission from the local community or from private citizens to gain access to the area where you want to clean up. In other areas, it is beneficial to visit the site where you’d like to plan a clean up in order to check for safety hazards, and to estimate the amount of help you’ll need to meet your goals.
Also included in the river clean up packet is a sample liability waiver (10K pdf file) that your group can adapt for its own needs, a sample press release (10K pdf file) to which you can add your group’s information, and some other important tips (30K pdf file) to help make your community river clean up a success.

Downloads

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