Great cleanup on the Santa Fe River!

[RN]

Yesterday, about 30 people met at Pete Butt's house to begin a clean up of a mile long or so stretch of the Santa Fe River from his place down to Rick and Kim Davis' place. First, thanks to both for allowing us to access their land to get into and out of the river. We had 8 divers in the water with 4 canoe-marans a 3 jon boats on the surface. We collected 1552 pounds of trash from that stretch. And I'm pretty positive we didn't get it all, but we did put a huge dent in it! The cleanup effort was spearheaded by Fritzi Olsen of Current Problems and organized by Pete Butt. The NACD has been involved in the Greater Suwanee cleanup for 3 years now and the number of volunteers increases every year. It's great, and sad, to see so much trash come out of the rivers. We will continue to organize these cleanups and improve the rivers for all to enjoy. We will also be expanding these efforts outside of the High Springs area over to the panhandle. We'll be organizing some cleanups in popular panhandle rivers next year. We can use more volunteers. Everyone has a great time and we get fed after the cleanup! Some of the volunteers had hot dogs, chili, chips, and cake waiting for us at the Davis'! Looking forward to the next cleanup.

[RN]

Here are some photos.

[sandy]

It is sad and appalling to see how much trash gets discarded in our rivers. I could not believe the stuff that the divers kept bringing up. In addition to the normal bottles and cans, we found three tires, several inner tubes, a mattress, a raft, a flooded dive light, and a pair of binoculars. I am sure they could have brought up three to four times the amount if time and resources were available. Thanks again to Pete, Georgia, Rick, Kim, and Fritzi for making this possible. Also, thanks to the eight cave divers who volunteered their time to dive for trash and the other 20+ people who were surface support. It is great to be associated with all of you.

As Rob stated, we will keep you posted on future clean-ups.

[shellmoundal]

The oddest thing I found was a lawnmower blade. How did that get in the middle of the river? I never would have believed we would get that much trash in a one mile run. Thanks for the great lunch and the fellowship. Nice to meet several members I had not personally known before. Rick was a great captain to be pared up with.

[sskasser]

I'm guessing the flooding a few years ago likely washed many oddities into the waterways. Kudos to you all for your hard work!

[a64pilot]

The oddest thing I found was a lawnmower blade. How did that get in the middle of the river?

I can show you a straight 8 cyl. crankshaft in the Flint, how many straight 8's were made? Somebody had to work to get that thing there, I'm assuming it was used as some kind of anchor?

[AJM]

Thank you all for your efforts...a great cause.

[MichaelAngelo]

great job folks

[scottj]

Did anyone get the pics off the flooded dive camera that was found? Could be interesting! For next season or even this season we are always looking for help cleaning up the river. To adopt a section go here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1KGR...vkZak/viewform

[WEPIV]

Yes, that would be interesting to see what's on there. Either way, you should still be able to retrieve the photos whether it's film or digital (if they're on a card).