Our rivers run through the heart of Franklin County. We fish in the Millers and Deerfield rivers for trout, we water ski in Barton Cove and motorboat on the Connecticut. We paddle up and down the Connecticut and all its tributaries. We swim in the Deerfield and Green rivers and we picnic on the banks of them all.
Sadly, some among us also discard their refuse in our waterways as well, everything from fast food trash to tires, appliances and even junk cars. And so every year, the good people of Franklin County and the North Quabbin have to work hard to undo what the thoughtless have done to the local environment that makes our region special.
So again, for the 22nd time, this week the The Connecticut River Conservancy and allied groups will hold the annual Source to Sea Cleanup, with the participation of thousands of volunteers along the waterways from the northern reaches of New Hampshire and Vermont to Long Island Sound where the region’s great river reaches the sea. At least a dozen cleanup groups in Franklin County alone will be pulling trash out of the rivers and from along the river banks.
“Some really unbelievable things have been pulled from our rivers, including a cement mixer, parking meters, propane tanks, and junk cars,” Stacey Lennard, the conservancy’s cleanup coordinator said recently. This year, in addition to working with more than 100 local cleanup groups across Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut to remove about 50 tons of small trash, the Greenfield-based nonprofit will continue working on the cleanup of large trash items:
In Greenfield, for example, multiple junk cars are being removed from a small brook near the Green River in Murphy Park, with help from Nartowicz Tree Services.
Near Colorado Street, work that’s been done over the past two years to remove thousands of tires dumped along the Deerfield River will continue, with voluntary assistance from large equipment, trucks, and employees of Lane Construction.
There are a number of large cleanup sites where the effort still needs help: in Whately, with a group from the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst; near the Stillwater Bridge in Deerfield, where the River Roaders group plans to work; and along the Green River in Greenfield.
In years past, scores of students from Greenfield have joined the effort along the Green River helping to clean, and learning along the way about the importance of a clean environment and keeping it clean in the first place.
The conservancy this year is taking a page from that school book by circulating a petition to pressure legislators and corporate decision-makers to implement solutions to reduce trash. That’s available at www.ctriver.org/our-work/source-to-sea-cleanup/takeaction.
“Our goal is to keep trash and tires from getting in our rivers in the first place and to eventually put ourselves out of the business of cleaning up our rivers,” explained the organization’s executive director, Andrew Fisk.
It’s a smart move, as it seems a single weekend work bee a year, even by hundreds of well-meaning volunteers, can’t completely undo the mess left behind by so many others. If legislative remedies can be found, all the better to head off the problem.
Meanwhile, this year’s cleanup can use all the help we can muster. Join in.
To find a nearby cleanup group near you, visit https://www.ctriver.org/our-work/source-to-sea-cleanup/, and click on ‘Join a Group.’