On the morning of May 17th beginning around 7:30, groups of volunteers arrived at Hog Creek County Park just outside of Grants Pass. By 8:00, nearly 100 volunteers were lined up to check in for the Rogue River Clean-Up & Let’s Pull Together!, an event that has been going on for 33 years. At around 9:30, approximately 170 volunteers had gone through the check-in process, during which they received an event swag item, whether an insulated water bottle, a t-shirt, or a long sleeve shirt, a trash picker, trash bags, snacks and drinks, a food voucher, and a raffle ticket. Volunteers then dispersed to different locations along Merlin-Galice Road, including Stratton Creek, Indian Mary, Taylor Bar, Ennis, Galice, Almeda, Grave Creek and more, plus some upstream locations along Lower River Road, such as Whitehorse County Park, Matson Park, and Robertson Bridge.
Each of these locations entertained volunteers with a particular activity. For example, Kyle Strauss of Strauss Ecological Services led volunteers at Stratton Creek and Taylor Bar. At these two sites, volunteers focused on pulling invasive Dyers Woad and Yellow Star Thistle. At Indian Mary and Galice, volunteers donned life jackets and hopped into rafts and inflatable kayaks to retrieve instream trash and target invasive weeds in the hard to reach areas, such as gravel bars and islands. Folks from AquaRenewal Systems, the Bureau of Land Management, Rogue Riverkeeper, and SOTAR were instrumental in accomplishing these tasks. All other sites had volunteers removing trash within the parks and along the roads, which was supported by Republic Services, a major trash service out of Grants Pass. Republic Services not only had staff on-the-ground to assist with picking up full bags of trash from the roads and parks, but also provided a 10-yard dumpster that was parked at the Indian Mary boat ramp.
Volunteers began trickling in at Indian Mary around 10:45 to enjoy the festivities of the Rogue River Clean-Up after-party, a celebration of the volunteers’ hard work cleaning up our beautiful Rogue River. Bagged lunches from Cartwright’s Market arrived at 11:00, boxes upon boxes of Girl Scout cookies lined the tables, and raffle prizes were predominantly displayed for volunteers to admire. It was a grand ole time!
Overall, the event was a great success! Nine cubic yards of trash weighing in at one ton was recovered from Whitehorse County Park down to the Grave Creek boat ramp, and 126 tires were removed. Additionally, over 2,000 Dyers Woad and Yellow Star Thistle plants were pulled over a span of 46 acres.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all of our volunteers, partners, and donors for the support!
To learn more about Rogue River clean-up events and invasive weeds efforts, visit:
www.stream-smart.com/rogue-river-clean-ups/ and www.stream-smart.com/rogue-aquatic-invasives-network-r-a-i-n/