With 405 volunteers and 2500 pounds of trash collected this year 39th Tuck River Cleanup is in the books as a success.
The Tuck River Cleanup is one of the nation’s largest single day river cleanups. The event stretches 20 miles of the Tuckasegee river from Cullowhee to Whittier, NC.
This year, they removed 500 more pounds of garbage than the previous year. The trash removed included the usual suspects, plastic bottles, cans, tires, trash bags and others. What surprised volunteers though was an interesting amount of construction trash.
“Nothing pulled from the river ever surprises us,” said Martin Jacaruso, assistant director of Base Camp Cullowhee. “With the topography of our area, run off and other water movement takes a lot of things to the river. We did have several traffic cones and orange construction barrels, plastic Adirondack chairs, and even a mailbox.” This could be due to the construction occurring over the Tuckasegee river on Highway 107.
This section of the river is a popular for tubing and swimming during the summer. Because of that, it’s important to know what is in the water of the Tuckasegee river; other than the trash. Through research, we found out it’s not just trash inside the Tuck but turbidity and bacteria that also pose a threat. This furthers why it is so important to take care of our rivers with events like the Tuck River Cleanup.
Base Camp Cullowhee is already looking toward the future for the 40 anniversary of the Tuck River Cleanup event.
“That’s a big deal! We are hoping to bring back some aspects of the event that haven’t been around since prior to 2020. We are really hoping that we can create a fun, almost festival like environment on the UC Lawn so that volunteers can have a celebration after a successful clean up. We’d like to include more educational aspects about the role of river cleanups and the impact of water pollution downstream. We’re very excited for next year, and hope to host another great year of the Tuck River Cleanup!” Jacaruso said.
If you would like to keep up with base camp Cullowhee, follow their Instagram or the Department of Campus Recreation and Wellness on Engage.
Related stories: Tuckasegee River has more than just garbage
