Operation Clean Stream

[timinmo]

I know this is a little regional so some may not be interested but it is something that is going on all over the state.

The Open Space Council of the St. Louis Region has been sponsoring Operation Clean Stream for 50 years.  Teams from all over the region clean up trash at sites all over the Meramec  River watershed.  I don't have any numbers as to how many people participate, but it is a bunch.  I have been honored to do my part for the past several years.  I belong to the Missouri Smallmouth Alliance and members of that organization have been lending a hand with the effort for much longer than I have been a member.  MSA had ten(?) people  on the upper Bourbeuse this year and most of us met afterwards at the Beaufort Lions Club.  The Beaufort Lions Club feeds volunteers both breakfast and dinner the day of the clean-up.  They have been doing this for about 30 years.  They have a raffle, limited edition Tshirts, free food and drinks and plenty of Stream Team give aways.  DNR had a display this year as they have had for as long as I can remember.  I did not make breakfast but did make dinner along with about 200 other people.  There are about 80 feet of banquet tables loaded with food and no one went home hunger.  The Lions Club is the collection point for what has been picked up and when you pull up with a load of trash the local Boy Scouts unload your truck and deposit it in waiting dump trucks.  This is truly a community event and the people that do the coordinating do an absolutely wonderful job. It is also very much a family event.  Just in my group we had people from 10 years old to 75, I am somewhere in the middle, I was please to be joined by my son and a friend from high school, which was a long time ago.

If anyone is interested in doing this in the future, it is always the fourth Saturday in August.  Next year I will try to remember to post something here in early August as a reminder and to help you plan. I think we are all saddened to see trash on our streams and lakes.  This is something anyone can do to help, whether it is picking up at ramps and accesses or doing a short float and gathering trash along the way.