35th annual Tennessee River Rescue cleanup held on Oct. 7

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The 35th annual Tennessee River Rescue cleanup was held on the first Saturday of October.

Volunteers helped clean up nearly 30 different sites in the Chattanooga area, spanning around six counties.

The annual one day event involved communities around the area coming out to help cleanup the Tennessee River Watershed.

“We have folks within our network that cleanup all year long. But this is really where we get all the community members involved just to see what’s happening,”Assistant Director at Waterways/ Tennessee River Rescue Co-Coordinator Brooke Fleeman said.

Students and different organizations contributed to the event.

Drue Zaharis with Chattanooga Junior Rowing, said pedestrians stopped by to thank the volunteers for their service.

“People that use the Riverwalk came by and said ‘Thank you for cleaning up.’ So even people who are not involved with it today, saw that we were doing it. And can get an idea that they can take care of it as well. It doesn’t have to be just us,” Zaharis said.

The event was honored with a mayoral proclamation that the first week of October is River Rescue Week.

Volunteers hope that more people will get involved in future events and learn the impact of the litter crisis.

Riverpark Zone leader, Greyson Dukes, said,” To me a lot of it is getting people out. It may be the one day a year that somebody gets out and intentionally picks up trash. But it shows people that it is easy enough to just stop and pick up a piece of trash any given day. I think that the lasting change that I hope to create in people is responsibility and stewardship over the environment.”

Zone leaders say they saw everything from couches, clothes, bottles, and even cat litter.

“We see everything from couches, to kids toys, to books, to clothes, to bottles.. I mean it really is just whatever you can find. There’s cat litter. I mean buggies and baskets. We just find everything here,” Fleeman added.

She said this is in part due to things washing up from the rivers and also from abandoned encampment sites.

At just one site alone, an entire dumpster was filled with litter. Fleeman said this equates to around two tons of trash.

“It’s definitely a community issue and it takes everyone to tackle this litter crisis,” Fleeman said.

Volunteers hope for to spread awareness of the Tennessee Watersheds and how individuals can take practical steps to improve the environment.

Dukes added that he would like to involve local businesses along the Riverpark in this initiative.

“What I would really love is a lot more involvement from businesses that are along the river having their employees get off of work to do a pickup, in what is essentially their backyard,” Dukes said.

While the next annual cleanup is now a year away, volunteers look forward to future cleanups in spring of 2024.

To learn how to get involved with the cleanup opportunities, or how you can donate to the cause, visit http://tennesseeriverrescue.org/