Upper Andro Anglers Alliance And Telstar High School To Clean Up Androscoggin River

As part of National River Cleanup, members of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance and students from the Telstar Challenge Course at Telstar High School in Bethel, Maine will clean up a section of the Androscoggin River from Gilead to West Bethel on Wednesday, May 19. Students, ages 16-18, will float down the river in rafts armed with garbage bags and towing garbage scow rafts to collect debris along the riverbanks. The clean-up flotilla will launch at 9 am from the bridge at Gilead and take out at Newt’s Landing in West Bethel. Community members are welcome to help clean-up this and other stretches of the river. The town of Bethel will provide trash collection at Newt’s Landing and deliver to the town’s solid waste facility.

Magic Falls Rafting Company of West Forks, Maine will provide rafts and garbage scows. Immediately following the clean-up, Pleasant River Campground in West Bethel is hosting a barbecue for all participants.

Rivers and watersheds have been used as dumps for old appliances, shopping carts and other refuse. Litter, such as foam cups, plastic bottles and food wrappers float into waterways, build up along the shoreline and stay there for years. With landfill space at a premium, recycling efforts stymied by a lack of plant capacity and toxic waste expensive to control, a grassroots effort can help maintain a constituency for preserving and protecting waterways. In 2009, 600 tons of trash and debris was collected and 7,500 miles of rivers cleaned across the nation. Last year the Upper Andro yielded over a ton of debris including bed springs, tires and tire rims and a 1950’s record player.

The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance is co-ordinating the local clean up. Says Clean-up Co-ordinator and UAAA director Bruce Pierce, “There’s been a long-standing effort to improve the Androscoggin’s water quality and fishery-now we need to improve the shore land zone along this wonderful river.”

National River Cleanup was founded in 1992 by America Outdoors, the largest association of America’s outfitters and guides, to assist local groups in keeping waterways clean. In 2007 American Rivers assumed administration of the river clean up. American Rivers, founded in 1973, is the nation’s leading river advocacy organization. NRC Information is published on line at www.nationalrivercleanup.org.