The River Clean-Up

by Jocelyn Trepte

2007 Picture Your Place Photo Contest 

Places to Work - Third Place

Work? Or Play? In reality both and certainly addictive! Very similar to looking for morels, where you find it hard to tear your eyes away from the forest floor for fear of missing one. Possible treasure lurks everywhere on a river paddle ... on the bottom, along the banks, in log jams, under overhanging bushes. A group of local paddlers has become addicted to the hunt, and now we it very difficult to pass up the beer cans both empty and full, flip flops never in pairs, water bottles, punctured tubes, plastic bags, coolers, fishing lures, a t-shirt, jacket ... and items unrecognizable they have been there so long. The camaraderie of being unofficial river stewards is fun, and we hope keeping our area rivers clean is contagious.