“The Mississippi is among the top 10 in the most endangered waterways in the country,” said Quinn Talar from Anoka County Parks.
On a late April day at Coon Rapids Regional Park, approximately 30 volunteers participated in the Mississippi challenge, picking up garbage along trails and the river banks.
Anoka County is one of several counties taking part in this friendly competition. The Mississippi challenge is a win-win event – volunteers got a chance to clean up a national historic waterway and be outside on a mild spring day.
“I’m just happy to be out here,” said Michelle Murray-Hitchcock of Coon Rapids.
“The hashtag is the winner’s the river,” Talar said. “Bragging rights for whichever county comes up with the most volunteers and people.”
“This has been a wonderful day for this,” said Coon Rapids resident Tahirah Schwab. “Sunshine, picking up the garbage. Perfect day.”
Prolific plastic problem
The volunteers were specifically focused on picking up plastic because the US has a prolific plastic problem.
“We absolutely do,” said Kathleen Keller of Shoreview.
It’s critical that plastic and other debris is kept out of water – especially the Mississippi.
“It really is about keeping that from going downstream to the Gulf,” Talar said…”It’s a very important fly way for many other species of migratory water fowl – songbirds, reptiles, fish. They’re all at home in the Mississippi.”
As they roamed the park filling hefty bags with litter and recyclables, the volunteers found some interesting items.
“There’s a lot of garbage bags, a lot of restaurant, fast food,” Schwab said. “There’s also a lot of fisherman worms, Styrofoam stuff.”
“As I was driving up here there were a ton of people that were carrying these blue bags for recycling,” Keller said. “Black bags for trash and I think they were collecting some good stuff for today.”
Pick up your garbage
Keeping parks pristine and garbage out of the Mississippi is simple – just throw your trash away.
“Clean up after yourselves,” Talor said. “If you’re out enjoying the park and see something someone else has dropped you can pick it up too. Definitely clean up after your pets and recycle when you can.”
“At the dam, there’s a lot of trash bins and recycle bins around,” Murray-Hitchcock said. “So there really is no excuse to not clean up.”
“We’re all using it,” said Allison McRae of Lakeville. “Nobody wants to sit around and see trash so keep it clean for everybody.”
Talar believes the Mississippi challenge will become an annual event.
“I think this is kind of just the beginning,” Talar said. I assume we’ll be doing this into the future to make sure we are keeping the river clean.”
