The 36th Annual Russian River Watershed Cleanup: That’s A Wrap!

Our annual watershed-wide event on Saturday, September 17th was part of an international effort to celebrate and honor the Clean Water Act’s 50th Anniversary. On this day we joined with Waterkeepers around the world to keep our planet clean with fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters everywhere!

Due to heavy recreational use and a large concentration of homeless across the watershed, the entire Russian River requires a large effort! It is our goal to keep the river clean and also to build stewardship in the community to protect the river for wildlife and people.

This year, there were local teams across the watershed from Ukiah to Monte Rio all contributing with the shared mission of protecting our River and ocean from trash pollution. The Russian River Watershed Cleanup revives our public parks and river area so that winter rains don’t wash the trash into the ocean which harms marine life and litters our coastal beaches.

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Here are the numbers!

• We had a total of 383 volunteers cleaning up across the watershed including 18 groups from Ukiah to Monte Rio!
• Volunteers filled 3 – 30 yard dumpsters to the brims with trash! That’s nearly 20,000 pounds of waste NOT in our River.
• We prevented 52 tires from entering our waterway and polluting critical habitat.

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Some of the most common items found were cigarette butts and single-use plastic. We also found a 15-foot canoe at the bottom of the River in Johnsons Beach! We would not have been able to organize and carry out this event without your support and stewardship. A huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers and sponsors for making it happen!