Duwamish Alive! Earth Day volunteers, report #2: On water, on land

| Environment | West Seattle news

(WSB photos and video by Cliff DesPeaux)
On a day dedicated to caring for the Duwamish River — with more than a dozen Duwamish Alive! cleanup/restoration work parties on and around it — about 100 of the volunteers took to the water, after hearing kayaking basics from Greg Whittaker of Alki Kayak Tours. They left from South Park:

Among them, someone who is dedicated to river cleanup year-round, Neal Chism, to whom we introduced you with this story last October:

Ahead – more photos from the river cleanup, as well as photos and video from the largest Duwamish Alive! site at Pigeon Point Park:

They patroled the river shore, looking for trash – and they didn’t have to look too hard:

Kayakers stopped to pick up trash on the river banks:

As they collected trash, they turned full bags over to a bigger boat – here, Jordan Mills hands one over:

Local environmental groups joined in the cleanup – this is Chris Wilke from Puget SoundKeeper:

Uphill to the west, Pigeon Point Park was again the site of the biggest work party this year. It’s part of the West Duwamish Greenbelt, the focus of the work done by the Nature Consortium.

One group of today’s volunteers got a lesson in mulching:

As has happened in years past, the Pigeon Point volunteers got some entertainment, too:

That’s the Chicago 7 (“minus 4,” they joked). The day concluded with an Earth Day festival inside nearby Pathfinder K-8 School. The official Earth Day, April 22nd, Thursday, will be the 40th anniversary of the first one, but you can celebrate Earth Day any weekend – greenseattle.org has a list of work parties for parks and greenspaces around West Seattle (and the rest of the city).

David & Eilene Hutchinson April 18, 2010 (10:54 pm)

Thank you for all your hard work in cleaning up the Duwamish. It is great to see so many involved in making our world a better place, and putting such an effort into caring for our environment!

Chris Wilke April 19, 2010 (8:13 am)

Thanks for posting this story. And a big thanks to all that turned out for the kayak cleanup and the rest of Duwamish Alive! I was truly amazed at the tenacity of the volunteers. There were some of you we could hardly pry off the river at the end of the event! I went home tired, muddy and feeling like we accomplished an awful lot for just 75 people at the Kayak Cleanup- The entire event was 938 volunteers by the way. A very memorable day and we are one step closer to a cleaner and healthier river.

For the Kayak Cleanup:
Some of our trash take included the following noteworthy items: A microwave, 2 computer monitors, a car battery, parts of a washing machine, many automotive parts, at least 6 tires, a toilet, a fire extinguisher from 1987, at least one fishing net with many lures stuck in it, and lots and lots of plastic! I figure there was nearly 2 tons of trash and debris. I’ll post a link to some more pictures soon.

For the Kayak Cleanup- Thanks to:
Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition (DRCC), Boeing, REI, Argosy Cruises, Port of Seattle, Alki Kayak Tours and Neal Chism for helping make this happen and finally to Clean Scapes for hauling it all away at the end of the day – no small task.

Also thanks to People for Puget Sound and DRCC for being the “glue” for all the different sites of Duwamish Alive.

Chris Wilke
Puget Soundkeeper Alliance

Neal Chism April 19, 2010 (10:12 am)

What many people did not get a chance to see on Saturday, that I did, was Chris Wilke and Greg Whittaker going after that fishing net full of lures, while both were up to their knees in mud. During lunch when all the kayaks and work boats had moved up river to the South Park Bridge, I was taking a break eating my lunch out on the boat. So, with little to do after all the kayaks had left, here comes Greg and Chris marching down to the waters edge to do some cleanup work of their own. After the fishing net and lures were removed, Chris then stayed and went after an old abandoned anchor sticking up out of the mud. Dirty hard work, but talk about leadership by example.

This was my first DA event and it was incredible for me to see just how much trash the Kayakers were hauling. One double place craft came to transfer its’ trash over to my raft, and I could hardly lift the yard bag up and over the railing. Amazing.

So, I will repeat what Chris has said above. Great work everyone and thank you for helping to clean the river. A well done to the larger support boat captains too. They were a great help out on the water Saturday and they were there when we needed them!

Neal Chism
Duwamish Trash Picker Upper Guy.

Steve April 19, 2010 (12:18 pm)

Thank you for a fabulous Duwamish Alive posting and to everyone who made every event a huge success! This was truly a team effort- neighbors, nonprofit and government agency staff, volunteers, and funders.

Everyone at EarthCorps was thrilled to team up with Seattle Parks, People for Puget Sound, The Nature Consortium, Boeing, REI, and many other organizations and individuals.

If you weren’t able to get out to volunteer this past weekend, go to http://www.earthcorps.org, click “volunteer,” and join us next weekend for a volunteer event.

Happy Earth Month!
Steve Dubiel
EarthCorps

Tonya April 20, 2010 (1:13 pm)

What an inspirational event, I want in next year!

Janine M. April 21, 2010 (5:22 pm)

Horray for everyone! Good work!

Suzanne Grant May 4, 2010 (10:45 pm)

The choruses from Coe and Lawton Elementary schools enjoyed singing songs for the volunteers at Pathfinder school after all their hard work. Successful School in Action helped sponsor the choruses, who were directed by myself, Suzanne Grant. The singers and their families really enjoyed being involved – for some of them, it was their first Earth Day, but for me, it was my 40th!

Sorry, comment time is over.