2012 Great Sierra River Clean Up Volunteers
Last Saturday, September 8, Eastern Sierra Land Trust partnered with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to clean up areas on the Owens River as a part of the state wide Sierra Nevada Conservancy’s Great Sierra River Cleanup. Last year nearly 2,000 volunteers across the state cleaned up about 36,000 lbs. of trash and recycling from rivers throughout the Sierra Nevada. We’re hoping to surpass those totals this year and the results should be released in a couple weeks.
During the local cleanup, 7 ESLT volunteers picked up trash from three sites along the Owens River south of East Line St. Overall, the group collected about 190 lbs of trash and recycling, including 31 plastic bags, 119 bottles and cans, 30 items of clothing, 38 shotgun shells, 105 food wrappers, 29 pieces of fishing line, and 620 cigarettes! According to the Ocean Conservancy, a single cigarette filter takes 1-5 years to decompose, and a glass bottle takes 1 million years to break down! The amount of trash that was cleaned up from these areas on the Owens River highlights the importance of packing out trash when recreating outside. Everyone, residents and visitors alike, benefit from having local recreation areas that are safe, beautiful, and trash free! Refreshments for the volunteers were provided by Great Basin Bakery and we had representatives from Bishop Unified Elementary School and High School.
Thank you to all of the participants and we hope you’ll join us next year.
