“My boat found only one glass bottle,” said Chris Lorentz, one of the helpers on Saturday's annual Blackfoot River Clean-up Day. “That's the least I've found on any float trip, in eight years.”
As recreation manager for the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Blackfoot Recreation Corridor, Lorentz keeps track of such things. This year, about 150 volunteers brought in just 54 glass bottles in nearly eight hours of searching. In the same time, they found 157 plastic bottles and 1,115 aluminum cans. And they gathered 17 golf balls, eight hats, 28 shoes, 30 sandals and 40 pairs of sunglasses.
“Maybe we're getting it through to people they have to take care of the river,” Pfister said while supervising the afternoon barbecue for the participants at her home by Rainbow Bend. She said floaters also seem to be using mesh trash bags provided by the Bureau of Land Management to haul off more of their leftovers.
Pfister takes the trash to the dump and converts any recyclable material to cash. The profits are donated to the Potomac Volunteer Fire Department.
Lorentz said after a year of handing out warning notices for glass bottle use, FWP wardens have been writing tickets for the past two summers when they see glass on the water. The tickets have a minimum $85 bond, and can cost up to $500 if the violation is flagrant.
“We float the river looking for violators, and we work from trucks at the access points that get a lot of attention,” Lorentz said. “We know the places people tend to hang out.”
The spring high water appears to have dredged up a lot of old metal scrap from the banks this year. Other interesting finds this year included an old Highlander Beer can with the marks of a “church-key” can opener, and the hub of a wooden wagon wheel.
The day started with scuba divers and support rafts headed out at 8 a.m. Walkers, waders and floaters followed at 9. This is the fifth year of the volunteer cleanup effort.
“The water felt great,” Lorentz said. “When the temperature got up around 90, wading into the water for some trash felt pretty darn good.”
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