News

Volunteers made a big dent in waterway litter this week with two trash trap cleanouts.

Last Saturday, members of the Wake Audubon Society teamed up with Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz and Stormwater Education Coordinator Sierra Stickney (Resilience Corps NC AmeriCorps member) to clean out the first trash trap installed in Raleigh, in Little Rock Creek on the grounds of the Walnut Creek Wetland Center.

The 10 volunteers made quick work of a full trash trap, according to Emily.

“It was definitely very fast because we had so many people, and everyone was eager to put on their waders and jump in the creek. So, the trash trap was cleaned out in 20 minutes,” she said. “That group meant business — they were not messing around.”

With plenty of time left, they headed up- and downstream to collect garbage on the banks of Little Rock Creek, picking up a total of 125 pounds of trash.

A recent presentation by Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop sparked the Wake Audubon Society’s interest in volunteering for a trash trap cleanout, which has since led to the group signing on to adopt the trash trap for the month of May.

“Sam met them back when we were first installing the Walnut Creek Wetland Center trash trap, and when I told them we now had 10 trash traps, they were blown away at how much the program has grown,” Emily said.

The effort to make waterways Litter-Free continued in Kinston on Monday, with students in Maria Messner’s biology class at Lenoir Community College — the second year Sound Rivers has worked with the class. Water Quality Specialist Taylor Register was on hand to talk to the class about water quality, demonstrating how to sample and take readings with a YSI meter, which indicate the health of the creek.

The class also donned waders and removed 34 pounds of litter from the Adkin Branch trash trap.

“After the trash trap cleanout, we analyzed the types of trash we found: what was common and what was surprising,” Emily said.

Most common items were plastic bottles and Styrofoam. The more unique items included a child’s Croc sandal and a bag used for rotisserie, sans the chicken.

A third trash trap cleanout — this time with a group of East Carolina University students — which was scheduled Wednesday for Washington’s second trash trap on Jack’s Creek was unfortunately undermined by a flat tire.

“They were so sweet, and so excited to get involved,” Emily said. “But I told them they were invited to any of our future cleanouts and cleanups.”

Emily is planning to host an Earth Day cleanup in April in Washington. Stay tuned for details!

These trash traps — passive litter-collection devices — are three of 10 traps Sound Rivers has installed on urban waterways throughout the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds, as part of its Litter-Free Rivers program. The Litter-Free Rivers program launched with the Jack’s Creek, Washington, installation in May of 2022, and nine more trash traps have since been installed on urban waterways: on Duffyfield Canal in New Bern, Little Rock Creek in Raleigh, Adkin Branch in Kinston, Greens Mill Run, East Tarboro Canal in Tarboro, three more were recently added on Marsh Creek in Raleigh (in partnership with the City of Raleigh, The Great Raleigh Cleanup and N.C. State University) and a second Washington trash trap on a small tributary of Jack’s Creek.

If you or your group would be interested in working for water quality by volunteering to clean out a trash trap or Adopt a Trash Trap for a month, check out the following:

More information about the Adopt A Trash Trap program.

Find out when and where the next trash trap cleanouts are scheduled — we’d love to have your help!

Like Sound Rivers’ ever-expanding Litter-Free Rivers program? We definitely do! Donate to support keeping your waterways litter-free!

Resilience Corps NC AmeriCorps is a service program of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, funded by a grant through the North Carolina Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism.