In early June, the Fond du Lac Area Water Alliance organized a trash cleanup that focused on the waterways near the south end of Lake Winnebago.
This Spring, the group’s leader Justin McArthur, was paddling near the mouth of the Fond du Lac River and found himself overwhelmed and frustrated by the amount of trash in Lake Winnebago. Spring flooding events had picked up 50-gallon drums, a busted canoe, and hundreds of other miscellaneous pieces of trash and washed them out into the Lake. Wanting to do something about it, Justin decided to organize other like-minded folks and create a trash cleanup event.
Justin and a handful of other area residents hit the local waterways on foot, in a kayak, or in a canoe and picked up as much trash as they could find or as much as their boats could float. Volunteers pulled out tires, countless plastic water bottles, and other various items of trash. Most notable were the tarps and large pieces of plastic that were pulled out of Supple’s Marsh. Efforts were focused on DeNeveau Creek, Anderson Creek, Lakeside Park, and the Fond du Lac River.
The Fond du Lac Area Water Alliance has a mission of gathering local people that care about our natural resources and want to share ideas about it or take action where we can. If you are interested in getting involved, check out the group on Facebook HERE. Check out Justin’s other project, Paddle Everything. The goal of that project is to connect people to our natural resources from the unique perspective of Justin’s kayak.
If you’re interested in helping to clean up our waters, FWWA also coordinates cleanups throughout the basin. Our annual Fox-Wolf Watershed Cleanup takes place in the spring with 60+ locations, and we schedule smaller, mini cleanups at different locations throughout the summer and fall. Let us know if you’d like to be added to our volunteer contact list.
Winnebago Waterways is a Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance program. The Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance is an independent nonprofit organization that identifies and advocates effective policies and actions that protect, restore, and sustain water resources in the Fox-Wolf River Basin.
Follow the Fox Wolf Watershed Alliance’s Winnebago Waterways Program on our Winnebago Waterways Facebook page or @WinnWaterways on Twitter! You can also sign-up for email updates at WinnebagoWaterways.org.
This post was written by Austin Pethan for the Winnebago Waterways Program. Questions or comments? Contact Austin at austin@fwwa.org or (920) 920-851-4295.
