Eagle Valley Trout Unlimited
2009 September

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2009 Eagle River Clean-up
President Grant Makes Appearance

The second Saturday in September hosted the annual Eagle River Cleanup, a county wide effort spearheaded by the Eagle River Watershed Council.  Our local Trout Unlimited chapter was able to organize a crew of 15 people to scour the river as part of this wonderful community event.  We were one of many crews helping to cover the Eagle River in its entirety and also Gore Creek that day.  We specifically tackled two miles of water beginning at the Eagle round-about, traveling upstream under the green bridge, and ending at Diamond S Ranch – now referred to as the “TU 2 Mile”. Our burly crew of 15 consisted of Trout Unlimited members, their families and friends.  I would especially like to thank Emily, Jacqueline, Jacob & Will, our fearless leaders!  The weather, although borderline in the morning, bestowed us a crisp fall day to enjoy during our river cleaning duties. 
There were certainly bags of trash to be filled, but considering the high-impact location of our stretch next to Highway 6 we all were pleasantly surprised at the condition of the river and the minimal debris we retrieved.  Some of our crew had worked the same stretch last year and reported pulling out a significantly larger amount of trash, hopefully showing an improved local consciousness. We found all sorts of random items (mostly on the banks between the road and river): the token automobile tire, a few broken cell phones, fast food bags, the occasional piece of rebar, and random debris from spring runoff.  The find of the day was initially thought to be a crusty piece of paper, but upon closer inspection and with the removal of a resident spider’s nest was discovered to be a $50 bill.  President Grant despite looking as if printed during the same century as the Declaration of Independence, complete with tattered edges and sun fading, was still honored at a local bank and kindly swapped out for a “freshy”.
We had a successful day making our stretch look new again and enjoyed being part of the greater effort supporting our local watershed.  It’s always kind of cool when driving home you see the many caches of orange bags along the roadside and realize the scale of our collective effort.   
Trout Unlimited would like to sincerely thank those who were able to join us for another grand day on the “Eagle”.

Alex Schaefer
Nick Rader Natalie Rader
Nate Jordan Mark Weinreich
John Knight Jacob Knight
Fred McLoota Will McLoota
Peter Law Jacqueline Law
Emily Law Rick Messmer
Joe Park Brents Olmsted