News

A Sound Rivers partnership with Craven County Clean Sweep River Sweep resulted in more than 300 pounds of trash removed from Brices Creek.

Representatives from Craven County and the Twin Rivers Paddle Club led the cleanup on Oct. 4, and a dozen volunteers took to the water to remove trash from the tributary of the Neuse River. Members of the No. 9 Township Fire Department of New Bern and two other volunteers on boats assisted with unloading garbage from kayaks.

Former Sound Rivers Program Assistant, now Pamlico County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Natural Resource Conservationist, Sierra Digan helped organize the event.

“It was a beautiful day to be out on the water, with a cool breeze and a temperature of around 75 degrees,” Sierra said.

It very quickly became apparent, however, that there wasn’t much trash on Brices Creek.

“I was happy that the creek seemed free of trash, but I was concerned we may not be searching in the right place,” Sierra said. “Then one of the volunteers, Steven, announced, ‘I found trash, and a lot of it!’ and we all quickly paddled to the source. It appeared that a lot of trash had flowed into a smaller creek branching off Brices Creek. The volunteers worked together to gather trash from the banks and in the water. Several trips were made to the accompanying boats to drop off full garbage bags from the kayaks.”

Sound Rivers provided kayaks for the event and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz worked with both groups to help plan the event.

Like the work Sound Rivers does to support our partners? We do! Support Sound Rivers today!