River Ridders takes action along Nashwaak
Published Monday July 6th, 2009
It was like an underwater scavenger hunt.
About 40 people upset with the state of the Nashwaak River paired into teams of twos and threes and canoed, kayaked and motored up and down the shore Saturday.
They collected rusted oil cans, antique car parts and even a ladder and a computer monitor.
By the end of the day, they had assembled close to a truckload of trash near the Carleton Park dock and organizers deemed the cleanup a success.
"Things went pretty well. We had a little rain here and there, but we kept going all day," said Charlene Hodder, one of the organizers of the cleanup.
"It was crazy. There was an old bar fridge, a kitchen sink, a bunch of tires and one gigantic tank that we floated down the river actually, so it's a pretty big pile of stuff we collected."
The event was organized by the River Ridders, a group of concerned paddlers dedicated to cleaning up the Nashwaak River and the banks surrounding it.
Hodder and a group of friends formed the group about two months ago after a kayaking trip down the Nashwaak brought them through one of the dirtier parts of the river.
"We were all out on the river together one day and someone spotted a fox across the way and Carolyn (McCullough, co-organizer) asked me where it was and I looked over and said, 'Right over there by that computer monitor.' Right then, we knew something needed to be done about this and we started to talk about it," Hodder said.
"We looked around and saw more and more things because they do become kind of camouflaged because this is kind of almost a regular dumping ground and some of this stuff has been there since before we were even born," said McCullough. The cleanup was the first event organized by the River Ridders, but McCullough said it probably won't be the last.
She cited strong support from the city, including participation by Mayor Brad Woodside on Saturday, and strong support from several local businesses that donated food for participants as encouraging signs.
"It has been amazing. Everyone wants to do something and we've found that as soon as we have asked someone they have jumped at it because it really is something that everyone can get behind," she said.
"This is the first, but I think every year we could choose another river that is a popular waterway around Fredericton and hopefully do the same thing."
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