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Trash-trap action ramps up across both watersheds

Environmental, Neuse River Watershed, Sound Rivers, Volunteer, Volunteers, Water Quality

Posted on August 3rd, 2023

Sound Rivers' Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz holds a bag of trash removed from the Jack's Creek trash trap in Washington this week.

Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program ramped up the trash-trap action in the past few weeks, with clean-outs from Raleigh to Washington.

In Raleigh this week, Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop met up with Carolina Wetlands Association volunteers for a clean-out of the trash trap on Little Rock Creek, on the grounds of the Walnut Creek Wetland Center. The group removed about 10 pounds of trash from trap, which included the usual round-up: Styrofoam, broken down into tiny pieces from food containers and packaging.

“As a group, we talked about how all of this trash ends up in our waterways, and why it’s so important to intercept it before it flows downstream to Walnut Creek, to the Neuse River, and eventually to the Pamlico Sound,” Sam said. “We also talked about the value of our wetlands in filtering our water, keeping it clean, and helping provide habitat for all of the creatures whose homes we’re cleaning up. It was a great group of folks who are excited to help with cleanouts in the future!”

In New Bern last week, Sound Rivers’ Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz headed up a clean-out of the trash trap on Duffyfield Canal, and installed the official Litter-Free Rivers sign on the trap, which features its sponsors: Cardinal Canoes, The 4 C’s — Coastal Casual Clothing Company, the City of New Bern and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office.

And in Washington this week, another 10 pounds of litter was removed from the trap on Jack’s Creek in Washington. That’s 10 less pounds of trash ending up in the Pamlico River!

AND … we have another trash trap being installed on Adkin Branch in Kinston on Friday, Aug. 4, and you’re invited to the ribbon cutting! Find out more here!

Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop (third from left) and volunteers with the Carolina Wetlands Association cleaned out the Little Rock Creek trash trap in Raleigh.
Sorting through trash from the Little Rock Creek trash trap located on the grounds of the Walnut Creek Wetland Center.
You never know what you’ll find in a trash trap clean-out. Here’s a rubber ducky.
Life abounds, even in urban waterways. A crayfish was hanging out in the Little Rock Creek trash trap.
Sound Rivers’ Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz hangs the Litter-Free Rivers sign on the New Bern trash trout, as volunteers comb the banks of Duffyfield Canal for trash.
Washington trash-trap volunteer Sara Hanifin snags some trash from the bottom of Jack’s Creek.
(Left to right) Sound Rivers water-quality intern DaNisha Harris, volunteer Dawn Dolson and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz celebrate another successful Jack’s Creek trash-trap clean-out, this one on a very hot day.

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