Conewango and Chadakoin Cleanup a Success
The Conewango Creek Watershed Association (CCWA) held their 3rd annual Conewango Creek Cleanup on September 10th. “The 2011 Cleanup was a great success and covered several sections of the Conewango Creek as well as a section of the Chadakoin in downtown Jamestown,” stated John Gallagher, board member of the CCWA and cleanup organizer. “Despite the threatening weather, which reduced our attendance somewhat, we still had a good turnout of hardy individuals who didn’t let the weather dampen their enthusiasm,” said Elizabeth Dropp, also a board member and cleanup organizer. The cleanup ran from 8 am to 1 pm with a lunch for volunteers afterward at Larimer Park in Russell, PA.
The Conewango Creek segment of the clean up covered 13.8 miles and included three sections from Frewsburg down to Point Park that volunteers canoed. People also cleaned up along the shores as well. There were 43 volunteers that worked on these various sections. Forty nine bags of trash were removed from the Creek. The trash was estimated at 5000 lbs. Volunteers also removed over one ton of recyclable metals . “Despite having taken tires out for the Creek the last two years, we still removed 17 tires from the Conewango Creek,” said Gallagher. Other items removed were a refrigerator, car door, 3 rugs, a 4 ft by 8 ft commercial sign, half a canoe, a wheel chair and three bicycles.
Fifteen volunteers covered 1.25 miles of the Chadakoin River from South Main Street to Harrison Street in Jamestown, NY. They pulled out 25 bags of trash, 7 bags of clothing, 3 bags of plastics, 2 bags of aluminum cans. 1 bag of glass, a tent, a power saw, and several tires and a range of other miscellaneous items.
This year CCWA partnered with Jamestown Audubon Society to help fund the cleanup. The Audubon received a grant from the “TogetherGreen Initiaitve”, which is a National Audubon and Toyota grant program to encourage citizens to get involved with hands-on community projects. This grant paid for canoe rentals, t-shirts and some incidentals. The TogetherGreen grant requires two volunteer projects to be run. The 2011 Cleanup was one and the other will take place next April. Details on this project will be announced in the future.
“We can’t thank our volunteers enough,” said Dropp. “Without them, this couldn’t have happened. We also need to thank all our business and organization sponsors who also helped to make this happen. Due to their generosity, we were able to have gloves, bags, refuse disposal and a lunch for the volunteers. If we had to pay for all those things, we couldn’t afford to have the cleanup,” says Dropp.
Businesses and organizations that supported our Cleanup this year were: Jamestown Audubon Society, Jones Carroll, Inc, Mike’s AJ’s Texas Hots, Pine Grove Lions Club, Tractor Supply Company of Warren, Warren County Conservation District, Big Lots of Warren and Jamestown, Tim Horton’s of Warren and Jamestown, Allegheny River Cleanup Committee, Ed Shults of Warren, Shields Farm, American Rivers, Ecklof Bakery, Domino’s Pizza of Jamestown, Everyday True Value and Boulder Canyon Natural Foods. The Conewango Creek Cleanup is part of the larger Allegheny River Cleanup. The Conewango and
Brokenstraw Creeks are tributaries that flow into the Allegheny River. Cleaning the upper streams also helps to clean up the Allegheny. The Allegheny River Cleanup ran from Saturday Sept. 10th thru Sept 17th. More information can be found at www.alleghenyrivercleanup.com.