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Students in Lenoir Community College’s science club donned waders and stepped into a chilly creek last week to clean out the Kinston trash trap.

“We had a small but mighty team of students from the Lenoir Community College science club who braved the cold conditions to get in waders and in the creek,” said Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop, who led the trash trap outing. “While there hadn’t been much rain recently, we pulled out 10 pounds of trash from the trap itself, and more from around the creek and the Holloway Center.”

For the past two years, Sound Rivers and Lenoir Community College Biology and Chemistry Instructor Maria Messner have partnered to monitor water quality and clean up Adkin Branch, a small tributary of the Neuse River that runs through the heart of Kinston.

In 2023, Sound Rivers, in partnership with the City of Kinston and the Mother Earth Foundation, installed a trash trap on Adkin Branch — part of Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program. Ten of these passive litter-collection devices are keeping trash from flowing into the rivers in Washington, New Bern, Raleigh, Tarboro, Greenville and Kinston.

“We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with Lenoir Community College, now with support from a mini-grant recently awarded to us by the North Carolina State Center for Human Health and the Environment,” Samantha said.

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