Hermann Clean Sweep Oct. 4th-10th

Missouri River Relief kicked off the Hermann Clean Sweep with 2 days of awesome education events with the Hermann area schools.  Being able to take kids out on the river to actually clean up trash is where it's at!  133 students from St. George Catholic, Hermann Middle School, Owensville Dutchman High School, and Owensville Middle School came out over 2 days to help us clean up the Big Muddy!

One of them even caught an Asian Carp! 

Hermann Clean Sweep in the news: 

• Gasconade County Republican - Oct. 12, 2011 - "MoRR Learning Festival draws praise from area administrators"
  
• Washington Mo. News + Video - Oct. 5, 2011- "Big Muddy Clean Sweep will bring Educational Activities, River Clean-up to Washington next week"
• Gasconade County Republican - Oct. 5, 2011 - "Good, clean, trashy fun with Missouri River Relief"
• CountyNewsLive.com (Hermann) - Oct. 4, 2011 -"Gasconade County students volunteer to clean Mo. River banks and learn more about river ecosystem"

On Friday, as is typical before a big clean-up on the river, our barge team went out and scouted the river for trashy areas, marking sites with our big blue Stream Team bags, and then set up a booth at the boat ramp on Saturday morning to take people out on the river despite Octoberfest activities going on in down town Hermann.

Lucky for us, a few locals & families showed up at 9 a.m. as well as the Arnold boys (aka the Mighty Stream Team 211 from St. Louis) to help the River Relief crew clean-up.  By 10 a.m., seven Lincoln University students in the MANNRS organization (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences) came out to clean up as well!

In all, 26 people signed up in addition to 20 of Missouri River Relief's "hard core crew" to clean up 14 miles of river!  

Here is the trash tally from the Hermann Clean Sweep:

166 bags of trash

80 yards of orange pvc water pipe

18.5 tires

12 - 55 gallon plastic barrels

3 tire inner tubes

3 propane tanks

2 refrigerators

2 freezers

2 ginormous tanks = to 300 gallons

1 picnic table

1 cable buoy

1 trash can

2 - 10 gallon tubs

1 - 10 lb propane tank

6 chairs

3 fence poles

4 heavy chunks of metal

1 panel of corrugated metal

2 - 30 gallon garbage cans

2 rail road spikes

51 metal posts

9 pieces of rebar

26 feet of iron pipe

7 pieces of cable wire

1 disc brake

1 metal gas can

1 wire grate

1 motorcycle helmet

7 - 5 gallon plastic buckets

4 propane tanks

2 coolers

1 hot water heater

1 tv vacuum tube

1 baseball hat

1 dishwasher shelf

1 plastic swimming pool

1 refrigerator door

1 radiator

1 "do not dig" sign

4-wheeler fender

8 good planks of lumber

2 buoys

1 cow skull

1 huge undergound gas tank (girl team score)

2 hunks o' styrofoam

10 pieces of braided cable

2x5 foot piece of corrugated plastic truck liner

25 feet of erosion control honey comb plastic

1 mop bucket

3 foot round plastic oil tub

1 pesticide sprayer

1 3-gallon paint can

1 message in a blottle

1 plastic scooby ketchup bottle

1 palm tree mylar balloon

1 metal can of car wax

10th Anniversary River Blessing

Given by Tim Nigh during River Relief’s 10^th Anniversary Dinner Celebration at Cooper’s Landing, September 21^st, 2011

Good evening friends and fellow river enthusiasts.

Let’s take a moment to pause in reflection and thanks…

O Great Spirit
The Missouri River is a beautiful and powerful force in our lives.

We come to her banks on this lovely evening to renew our connections to you,

Our connections to the Earth, and our connections to each other.

We are grateful for this opportunity to gather with friends,

To share stories and experiences,

and to reflect on a decade of activities on behalf of the Missouri River.

Ten years ago, the Big Muddy was singing the blues,

and we (all of us) decided to do something about the tires, barrels, Refrigerators, buckets, bottles, cans and other trash that littered her banks.

She was a mess.

Tonight, ten years later, after thousands have gotten their feet wet picking up Hundreds of tons of trash, along over 600 miles of her banks...

We believe that the Big Muddy is rejoicing and celebrating with us,
Right here, right now.

We are so proud of what we have done and we are prepared to do more.

O Great Spirit!

Thanks for this meal, thanks for this night and thanks for this river.

Can I get an Amen!?  Amen!

The Big Muddy Clean Sweep Begins!

 "River Relief begins Big Muddy Clean Sweep to remove trash for 170 miles in 8 towns on the Missouri River”

Missouri River Relief is bringing barges upriver to Jefferson City to start a month-long voyage removing tons of trash and debris from the shores of the Missouri River. This endeavor — the Big Muddy Clean Sweep — is the flagship project of River Relief’s 10th Anniversary celebration.

Missouri River Relief (MoRR) is operating two barges and a towboat to haul recovered debris along the 143-mile reach from the state capital to the Mississippi River. The River Cleanup Barge heads upriver towards Hermann on Sept. 24th, 2011photo by Dave Marner

The Clean Sweep voyage will start with a community-based cleanup with hundreds of local volunteers on Saturday, Oct. 1 in Jefferson City and will finish Saturday, Oct. 29, with a community-based cleanup at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area near St. Louis.  Click here for more information about the Jeff City Clean-up.

The collected trash and debris will be hauled on a sand barge and unloaded at terminals on the Mississippi River for recycling or proper disposal at landfills. The MoRR barge team will stay on a quarters barge with office and storage space, cabins, a galley and a bathroom. 

Both barges will be pushed by a towboat named “River Cleanup” provided by Living Lands & Waters, an equipment-based organization similar to MoRR that conducts cleanups on the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio and many other rivers. The LL&W founder, Chad Pregracke, inspired the creation of MoRR at the first big Missouri River cleanup on Oct. 6, 2001. He was instrumental for the event’s success by bringing his boats, barges and crew to Easley, Mo., where 300 volunteers removed 30 tons of trash

The Big Muddy Clean Sweep will be punctuated with stops at four river towns along the way — Jefferson City (Sept. 26-Oct. 2), Hermann (Oct. 3-9), Washington (Oct. 10-16), St. Charles(Oct. 17-23)— and at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. 

These week-long moorings will enable MoRR to conduct community-based cleanups with hundreds of local volunteers, educational field trips, river festivals, barge tours and celebrations Check for specific dates and activities at MoRR’s website: www.riverrelief.org.

Residents along the river that would like to be involved, or may know of trash or dumps accessible from the river that should be cleaned up may also contact Missouri River Relief through their website: www.riverrelief.org.

The first Clean Sweep cleanups originally were planned in Kansas City and Cooper’s Landing in Boone County but due to high river levels and flooding this year, the project started in a leapfrog manner. The first cleanup occurred Saturday, Sept. 10 in Kansas City from land-based sites instead of by boat. More than 250 volunteers cleaned up an estimated 7 tons of trash from 11 sites, including several public parks ravaged by flooding.  Read more about the Kansas City Clean-up on our webpage.

The second series of cleanups happened Sept. 17-25 at Cooper’s Landing while the barge fleet was being transported upstream with a towboat provided by Hermann Sand and Gravel Company. This boat-based cleanup brought 186 volunteers on the river to remove 50 tires, 1/2 ton of scrap metal and 2.6 tons of trash. Volunteers included students from Douglass High School, Columbia Home School Resource Group and Garden Gate School, employees from Columbia Wal-Mart stores and members of Friends of Big Muddy, Missouri Master Naturalist, Missouri Stream Team and Sustain Mizzou.

MoRR and the Big Muddy Clean Sweep is the result of partnership, sponsors and volunteers who support the effort with time, energy, money and materials. Golden Mile sponsors, donating $10,000 or more to the Clean Sweep include Boeing, 3M, Missouri American Water, Solid Waste Management Districts, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and Pat Jones. A complete list can be seen at the MoRR website www.riverrelief.org.   

River Relief’s 10th anniversary will serve as a springboard for future growth, building on existing partnerships and identifying key individuals and organizations in communities to form a coalition of Missouri River Action Teams (MoRATs) interested in improving the health and beauty of the Missouri River for decades to come.

Missouri River Relief is a non-profit organization based in Columbia, Mo., whose mission is to connect people to the Missouri River through hands-on river clean-ups, education events and restoration activities.  In just 10 years,the organization has made a visible & lasting difference on the river bringing together more than 14,000 volunteers to haul more than 1 million pounds of trash from 667 miles of river shores. 

2011 marks Missouri River Relief’s 10^th Anniversary.

Missouri River Relief Celebrates 10 Years of Good, Clean, Trashy Fun, makes Congressional Record

On February 3^rd, Missouri River Relief was honored in the U.S. Senate by Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill in an official Congressional Record. 
>> Read it here

How did we come this far?  Well, here's the story:  In 2001, it started as an offbeat idea.

Gather as many people as you can on the banks of the Missouri River, stick them in boats, drop them off along the banks of the river, and see how much trash we can get out of there.

It turned out to be a really good idea.

There is no better way to build a network of river advocates than to get a bunch of river lovers to work side by side with folks that have never been on the river before, a community of people beginning to see the Big Muddy in a new light.   And after a few precious weekend hours, you have a massive pile of trash to show for it.  Literally tons of trash, pulled from the stream of garbage pulsing down our great river, the idea has become an organization dedicated to connecting people to this river, through hands-on river clean ups, education events and restoration activities.  Meet Missouri River Relief.  

photo by Wayne Werkmeister, National Park Service

Bringing tools, expertise, knowledge and an undying desire to get the work done, 2011 marks the organizations 10th anniversary of hands-on river work.  In just ten years, the organization has made a visible and lasting difference in over 20 river communities, bringing together more than 14,200 volunteers to haul more than 1 million pounds of trash (592 tons to exact) from 667 miles of river, and we’re  just gaining steam. 

To celebrate these accomplishments, build new partnerships, and continue the action, Missouri River Relief has an ambitious year of activities planned.  Starting this winter, River Relief is taking to the skies to conduct an aerial inventory of trash accumulations on the river and its floodplain with Eco-Flight.  

 

photo from EcoFlight webpage:  www.ecoflight.info

Areas of concentrated trash will be identified and mapped while the foliage is bare, and made available in a spatial database.  Upriver clean-ups will begin in the spring from Yankton, S.D. to Omaha, NE followed by the kick-off of our signature event of the year, the Big Muddy Clean Sweep, beginning in Kansas City on Sept. 10th.  The aerial “MegaScout” will be used to guide clean up activities as River Relief gears up for a massive rolling clean-up by barge .

The Big Muddy Clean Sweep in the fall will feature a garbage barge on a downriver voyage from Kansas City to the confluence with the Mississippi River in St. Louis over a two-month period (September 1st - November1st).  The barge will stop in river towns for community clean-ups, educational events and barge tours.    

 photo from Living Lands and Waters website:  www.livinglandsandwaters.org

River Relief’s 10^th anniversary will serve as a springboard for future growth, building on existing and new partnerships, and identifying key individuals and organizations in communities to form a coalition of Missouri River Action Teams (MoRATs) interested in improving the health and beauty of the Missouri River for decades to come.

Ready to jump on board?  Keep checking in at www.riverrelief.org for our 2011 schedule and links to other helpful resources, and get ready to take action!  Bring friends and family, recruit your business or organization, offer a product or service, or make a financial contribution to help turn the props.

“A river that once had almost no friends now has a growing host of passionate protectors, thanks to Missouri River Relief.”  -Jim Low, writer for the Missouri Department of Conservation. 

text by Melanie Cheney

Films, Friends and great River Tunes

Wild & Scenic Film Festival

The Blue Note, Columbia, MO

Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011

text by Steve Schnarr 

Cabin Fever Breaks at the Blue Note
Last Wednesday, Feb. 8, was one of the coldest nights of the year. The Blue Note was downright chilly when we got there in the afternoon to set up the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. But it didn’t take long to heat up once the doors opened and warm bodies filled the old theater.

After a couple of brutal winter weeks, cabin fever was in the air in Columbia and lots of old and new friends came out for an evening of movies, inspiration and great music. It was really fun for us at Missouri River Relief, because it was the kickoff for our 10th anniversary – a chance to look back at a bunch of good work and forward to ambitious plans this year.

Films Inspiring Action Across the Country
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour is a traveling offshoot of a festival held each January in Nevada City, CA. The original event was put together by a local citizen river group to bring people together, learn about citizen action and natural adventure around the world, and be inspired to take action in their community. The South Yuba River Citizen’s League (SYRCL) loved what the festival did in their town, and decided to leverage that power across the country using local grassroots organizations as hosts.

When we realized that one of the films was the Missouri Stream Team documentary (including a piece about River Relief), we decided to host the festival in Columbia. A grant from Patagonia sealed the deal.
We spent a few months with a group of River Relief crew volunteers putting together the film list and ideas on spicing up the event. Films were selected from a pool of choices screened at the full festival. The SYRCL festival staff provided tons of great advice and resources for pulling off a quality event. Richard King, the owner of The Blue Note, offered us a full night in their historic theater for free. Everything snowballed into the set up for a perfect evening. 

We chose to show four main, longer topical films (around 25 minutes apiece) sprinkled with shorter, more creative pieces. “Big River” was a great way for us to start out. It’s all about thinking about our downstream impacts –  – something Missouri River Relief is all about. It was followed by a piece on young, innovative farmers and a look at West Virginia citizens fighting the effects of mountain-top removal coal mining on their communities (“Greenhorns” and “Burning the Future”). Shorter films included “Get Up Stand Up” (about river surfing in Wyoming), “Lady Bug Swarm” (just plain beautiful), “Garbage Angels” (a mythical animated romp through a garbage dump) and “The Majestic Plastic Bag” (a mock-umentary of the migration of a shopping bag). Click here for more about the films, and links to trailers.

Filmmaker (and River Relief founder) Jim Karpowicz

Local filmmaker Jim Karpowicz, also one of the founders of River Relief, introduced young film makers Nick Rotts and Julian Segert and their PSA on stormwater pollution in Hinkson Creek. Then he introduced his inspiring documentary about the 20 years of the Missouri Stream Team program.You can see the whole thing on You-Tube here.

We wanted the night to enlighten and inspire our friends and it really seemed to work.

A Community Effort
In addition to the hard working Blue Note staff, River Relief crew members greeted people, set up a silent auction and raffle, sold repurposed t-shirts and introduced the films. Everyone had short shifts so they could enjoy most of the night.

Ruthie Moccia & Jeanie Kuntz show off their
beautified t-shirt collection

Tons of local friends donated art, books, services and goodies to be auctioned and raffled off. River rats Barbara and Roger Giles walked off with a weekend in Rocheport, with a stay at the Katy Trail Bed & Bikefest, dinner at Abigails, some great books from Pebble Publishing and a couple bottles of Les Bourgeois wine. The Alpine Shop kicked in a cash donation and a kayak paddle.

Big Muddy Adventures, our partners in the Confluence area, put up a guided canoe float for auction. Tim Nigh was the auctioneer, and he goaded the crowd into bidding up to $450 for the trip. Diane Oerly, a longtime River Relief friend, took the top bid. (I hope I can buy a ticket on that boat trip!) Tim can be pretty persuasive, even dragging Brett Dufur (himself a Missouri River canoe guide) into the bidding.

Naked Dave Bandy at
Hartsburg Clean-up, 2008

A special treat was a visit from Allison Skare, who works in Senator Claire McCaskill’s office. The previous week, Sen. McCaskill gave a resolution on the Senate floor honoring Missouri River Relief volunteers for their 10 years of getting it done on the Big Muddy. Allison read a few pieces of the resolution, and handed a copy over to our Director, Jeff Barrow.

The whole thing was topped off with music by our dearest river rat musician friends. “Naked” Dave Bandy coordinated the music. His band Crazyfish invited a bunch of friends on stage to jam on river tunes written by local songwriters (including themselves, of course). I’ve always said that this band sounds best over the river, from a canoe floating down towards Cooper’s Landing. But they sounded righteous in the Blue Note! Then a mutant version of the Roadkill Orchestra took the stage, with “Uncle Denny” Termanian joining Dyno Penny and Karen Crane. It was like transporting the big sycamore at Cooper’s Landing right into downtown Columbia.

River Relief on KOMU news!

 posted by Steve Schnarr

Yesterday afternoon we got a call from a reporter for KOMU Channel 8 in Columbia looking to do a story about our 10th Anniversary. Somehow, she wrapped our 10th anniversary, our Big Muddy Session and the Wild & Scenic Film Festival at the Blue Note all into one short piece. She did a great job! Thanks Marissa!