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Clean ups, Clean ups and More Clean ups!

Hello,


It’s that time of the year when we like to celebrate the year in review and ask our friends to consider an end of the year gift to build on that success. River Keepers has
been blessed with wonderful support in the form of partnering agencies, donors and volunteers again in River Keepers board of directors and staff want to extend our thanks to all of you who contributed gifts of time, talent and treasure over the past year.

Question: What do 60+ bicycle and car tires, over ten thousand pounds of wet and muddy plastic bags, beach balls, golf balls, sheets of styrofoam insulation, numerous chairs, a couple of 55-gallon barrels, tarps, sleds, food and beverage containers, blankets, kids swimming pools, bicycles, buckets, and umbrellas all have in common?

Plastic bags were everywhere in Snakey Creek prior to the clean ups.

Answer: They are some of the many items we found this year during clean ups that we
coordinated. You may have guessed, 2021 was the year of clean ups and more clean
ups. Because river levels were a little bit lower, we were able to pick up items we’ve
been wanting to get at for years. With the assistance of hard-working volunteers, we coordinated 36 riverbank clean ups, 3 on-the-water Red River clean ups, 5 cleanups along Drain 27, and 14 clean ups at Snakey Creek for a grand total of 241 volunteers
contributing 475 volunteer hours picking up an estimated 15,700 pounds of garbage.
Partners in the clean up projects are the Fargo Park District, Moorhead Parks and
Recreation, and Southeast Cass Water Resource District.

The garbage was difficult to collect. We are grateful for volunteers who were willing to get wet, muddy and climb tricky terrain to clean up Snakey Creek.
Soooo much better!!

River Keepers is a programs-oriented organization. Administrative costs are kept to a minimum, and the efforts of staff are focused on a year-round agenda helping the community LEARN about the Red River, be good stewards and help SUSTAIN the Red River and to safely ENJOY the Red River. Our website and social media have information on the many outreach programs and events that we coordinate or participate in such as river friendly workshops, River Paddling Excursions, youth fishing clinics, Reforest the Red tree planting events, canoe and kayak rentals, Race the Red canoe and kayak races, interpretive snow shoe hikes, and more!

Tires at the bottom of the Red River.
It took a couple of events, a pulley system and some muscle, but we got them!

River Keepers is a local organization, and our efforts and focus are aimed primarily at the Fargo-Moorhead area and immediately surrounding area. No other organization duplicates the programs and resources of River Keepers.

Your continued support and contributions have made a tremendous impact and will continue to do so as our organization works hard to reduce the many misconceptions of the Red River. It is imperative for us to be an informational resource so all people value our Red River as a vital part of our community.

All of this was retrieved from a canoe!

To make sure this work continues, we’re asking for your support – every gift matters! Go to riverkeepers.org/donate/ to donate today!

As always, we wish you the best for this holiday season!

Bert McDonough
President of the Board of Directors

Christine Holland
Executive Director


P.S. Call or email Christine at 701.235.2895 or christine@riverkeepers.org to discuss the Red River, River Keepers, or to find out how you can volunteer at one of our many educational or clean up events.