This year, 631 volunteers came out across the Elk Valley for the Elk River Alliance’s (ERA) annual shoreline cleanup, removing 6,156 pieces of garbage from the watershed.

For the first time, ERA weighed everything collected, totalling 943 pounds of trash. Think the weight of a grand piano; that’s a lot of garbage!

The Elk River watershed is an integral part of the valley, supporting drinking water, recreation, fishing, agriculture, wildlife, and more. Keeping its streams healthy matters to all life in the valley.

Aleshia Conley, Communications Coordinator at ERA, says that over the years volunteers have found almost everything along the river’s edge.

“From car tires and scrap metal to diapers and cigarette butts, each piece pulled out is one less in the river,” said Aleshia.

“Trash can be wind blown or taken with eroding banks into streams, but pieces can also degrade over time and leach pollutants such as plastics into the waterways. This is why even garbage found on the land can impact our waterways.”

In 2021, the annual cleanup grew into a citizen science project. Volunteers track what types of trash they collected, and ERA compiles it into charts each year. Over the last six years, 2,402 Elk Valley volunteers have removed 41,415 pieces of garbage from the watershed.

“Every year it’s inspiring to see how community members continue to show up for the watershed and give back to our natural spaces,” continued Aleshia.

The data tracked can help to limit trash in future years. Patterns in the data can point to where waste is coming from and give us the information needed to reduce it in the first place. These numbers also serve as a reminder each year that even in an area where our outdoor spaces are highly valued by the community and visitors, humans can still have a negative impact on the environment.

This year’s addition of weighing the trash collected is the start of an expanded data approach where moving forward, weight, garbage types, and locations will be tracked throughout the cleanup event. Volunteers will also be given maps of areas to clean that have been known to need help so that key areas can be targeted.

“We want to mitigate those negative impacts as much as possible so that the streams can continue to be a source of life and recreation for all living things.

“Sixteen years in, this clean up belongs to the community. We want to thank everyone who shows up and cares for our watershed each BC River’s Day,” concluded Aleshia.

This year’s event would not have been possible without ERA’s sponsors: Big Bang Bagels and StellerVista. ERA thanks Eldho’s Your Independent Grocer for the snacks and Island Lake Lodge for the prizes. A big thank you also to AmbassadorWILD for helping run the events.

Photo submitted

Elk River Alliance

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