October 4, 2005
By Constance Riggins
It was a great day on the river and over fifty Altamaha Riverkeeper
members and other volunteers from Vidalia and surrounding communities
felt
proud
when they stood on the beautiful clean banks of the Ohoopee River.
This was after spending the day removing old tires, mattresses,
box springs, a hot water heater, car radiator and hundreds of
beer bottles
from the riverbanks during the Ohoopee River Clean Up on October
1. The diligent crew filled a large dumpster with trash picked
up from Highway 56 Landing, Collins Bridge (Hwy292), Jerriel's
Landing,
Findlay's Landing, and Cobbtown in Toombs and Tattnall County.
The clean up demonstrated great community spirit and participants
felt
inspired by helping to protect a valuable natural resource. Local
organizer and participant, Tracey Adams, says, "It feels like we
gave something back to the environment. Everyone enjoyed working
together. We shared a nice lunch and received special T-shirts commemorating
the event. We want to give special thanks to the great guys from
the Paul Anderson Youth Home, Sullivan Environmental, Grace United
Methodist Church Youth Group, and Claxton 4-H Club for their work
toward stewardship of the Ohoopee River. Thanks also go to ARK members
from Darien, Brunswick, Jesup, Baxley, Richmond Hill, Vidalia, and
Lyons who participated in this effort."
The clean up was sponsored by the Altamaha Riverkeeper whose spokesman,
James Holland says, "The Ohoopee River is one of 3 upstream tributaries that flow
into the Altamaha. Trash and pollutants entering the river upstream end up in
the Altamaha and the ocean. Our watershed is a system of connected rivers that
provide a habitat for hundreds of animals and plants and a great place for boating,
fishing, and enjoying nature. We hope the clean up will discourage careless littering
and dumping everywhere. People should take pride and protect these rivers. With
care, we can maintain our waterways as a legacy for the future, one that sustains
a healthy environment for all of the inhabitants."
The clean up was part of Rivers Alive and the 14th Annual Georgia
Waterway Cleanup, a statewide effort to beautify Georgia's water
resources, sponsored by the DNR's
Environmental Protection Division and Keep Georgia Beautiful. Participants
were part of an estimated 28,000 other volunteers statewide participating
in the
annual cleanup of Georgia's streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and ocean.
The event is the largest single volunteer effort to beautify Georgia's
water resources.
ARK's Executive Director, Deborah Sheppard, asks everyone to do
whatever they can to pick up litter and trash whenever they see
it. "You don't have to
wait for a clean up to do something to help the river. You can make it
a habit to
pick up trash and litter whenever you see it and make sure that your own
trash ends up in the proper receptacles. It is a small thing that
everyone can do
to help their community and keep our waterways free of debris."
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