Kids clean up North and South Fork of
New River

Before Ashe County school children began summer vacations, they pitched in to help clean up the county’s treasured New River.  Over two days, and in coordination with National Committee for the New River (NCNR), over one hundred 5th grade students, teachers and parents from Blue Ridge Elementary school tackled sections of the North Fork and South Fork of the New.

The school groups gathered more than 600 pounds of trash and garbage over the two days of clean up, picking up everything from plastic garbage bags, fast food wrappers, and an unfortunate assortment of glass and plastic bottles, and cans.  As always, the garbage hunt included the unusual and inexplicable:  a muffler, a television, an artificial Christmas tree, and 9 tires.   Courtney Wait, Advocacy Coordinator for NCNR said, “These 5th graders know that much of the trash they took out of the river is recyclable – and the items that aren’t are easily disposed of in a garbage can!”    

New River State Park participated both days, helping to collect the trash and unload it at proper disposal sites.  And, New River State Park’s Ranger Jeff Matheson presented enviroscape programs to explain concepts such as how pollution in rivers are transferred, and the sources of pollution. 

Since the clean up days, NCNR staff and state park rangers have received imaginative and colorful “thank you” cards from the Blue Ridge 5th graders, “I’ve been really excited to read the cards and letters the kids sent -- it seems that everyone had a lot of fun cleaning up the New and took away some valuable lessons about what an important natural resource many of them have in their backyards,” said NCNR’s Courtney Wait.  Samples of these cards will be appearing on the NCNR website www.ncnr.org and in upcoming newsletters. 

NCNR envisions a permanently protected New River as a treasured natural resource.  The mission of NCNR is to advocate for successful protection of the New River, to restore eroding river and stream banks and enhance riparian habitat, and to permanently protect land along the River.  NCNR works in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia’s New River watershed.  Over the last 31 years, the organization has protected nearly 5,000 acres of land important to the River’s water quality, scenic and natural values, and has restored over 66 miles of river and stream bank.