by Nadananda
June 1, 2007
Article courtesy of Friends of The Eel River
Once upon a time it was OK to drop your waste or trash on the forest floor, since this waste was organic and it just disappeared into the soil. Now our waste is synthetic and lasts for years, making a mess of the landscape, fouling our waterways, and plugging up channels. Waste thrown out car windows eventually finds a waterway that carries it down to a river, out to sea, and then back on our beaches — unless it's consumed in error by a marine animal. Small items like cigarette butts and deflated balloons end up being confused for food by many kinds of fish and other wildlife and doing them great harm. By this time you've probably see photography or graphics depicting this situation.
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Maybe you've also seen the photos collected by people participating in yearly river clean-up efforts. We've seen lots of those photographs about other river clean-ups but were unprepared to see first-hand the quantities of garbage in a 3.5-mile stretch of the Eel right here near our main office in Garberville.
Several months ago John Caseli came into our office quite upset about the quantities of garbage floating downriver in front of his new home. When he went to investigate this situation further, he saw even more garbage along the brush just above the waterline where transients camped. Other areas he checked out were places with descriptive names like "Tweeker Flats," where hundreds of needles were found as well as dead zones, areas where nothing grew, indicating a dumping zone of chemicals used to produce speed.
| Common under the bridge lodging |
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| Photo: Nadananda |
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In a response that inspired others, John re-channeled his upset into productive action. Not only did he gather a crew of local residents, some transient people, and a local rescue crew, John talked with every service club in town, called upon every agency for help and got none, then inspired the community to donate to an Eel River Clean-up Fund at our local Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union. The fund grew to the size that really became helpful in paying for dumping fees for the 23,000 pounds of garbage that has been picked up in the past three months.
A lot of this garbage was from locals using the river as the place to wash away their deeds, but most was from transients who use the underpasses of Highway 101 and dry gullies that flash fast and furious during our intense winter rains. Blankets, sleeping bags, clothing, and now and again a child's toy were found hanging from the cliffs under bridges. Thanks to the local rescue team, who used a training day to practice rapelling and pulled garbage off overhanging brush and trees. This area could not have been cleaned without this clever use of time to help with a growing concern.
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The problem is exacerbated by the fact that since people cannot hitchhike along Highway 5, they do so along Highway 101. It is important that we protect the right to travel in this fashion and should therefore accommodate it. There are not very many rest stops along Highway 101 North (though there are three within a few miles of each other, then hundreds of miles until the only other rest stop, above Trinidad).
Because this river is so long and there is such a problem with garbage year round, we are joining the National Rivers Clean-Up effort that runs from June 2 through June 8. The organization helps by providing rubber gloves, trash bags, and sometimes trash picks. In the fall we will join with the Coastal Beach Clean-Up for the third Saturday in September; this group also supplies us with the necessary items for clean-up.
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| Thanks to the Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue team, who honed their rapelling skills by cleaning up the cliff under the Bear Creek bridge between Garberville and Redway |
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FOER will be at the Mateel Summer Arts Fair June 2nd & 3rd, with our Fish Tent and a white pop-up tent beside it with information about how you can join us. We are identifying areas that need concentrated effort and making arrangements for garbage disposal. We are also identifying sites we want to turn over to County Health Departments for hazardous waste pick-up. Last but certainly not least, we are working with the Adopt-A-Highway program to identify areas that need tending. Please contact us here at our main office (707.923.2146) and let us know if you and friends can take on sections of river and particular sites for clean-up.
Monetary donations for this effort may be sent to the Southern Humboldt Community Credit Union, 757 Redwood Driver, Garberville, CA 05542, account number 13129 (named Eel River Clean-up Fund). Come join in cleaning up our part of the Earth!
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