The Upper Deschutes Watershed Council is looking for volunteers for the annual Deschutes River Clean-Up on July 30.
Volunteers will remove harmful weeds, instream debris and litter along the river.
The council says the amount of debris in the river has increased as river use has gone up dramatically in recent years. Approximately 300,000 people float the river through Bend every summer.
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“When I first started coordinating the river clean-up many years ago we were mainly removing relic lumber mill debris from the river. Now, we are removing bags and bags of cell phones, flip flops, GoPros, wallets, bikes, and hundreds of bottles out of the river and its sensitive streambanks,” Kolleen Miller, the Education Director for the Watershed Council said in a statement.
“The last time we coordinated an instream river cleanup, divers pulled 1,400 pounds of garbage out of the river,” Miller added. “Most importantly, we hope to raise awareness about the problem so that the garbage stops ending up in there in the first place.”
The event is July 30 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Of the six clean-up sites, volunteers are still being sought for La Pine State Park and Tumalo State Park.
Volunteer registration can be found at this link.
