Cleaning rivers and floodplains is always a work in progress, but luckily, things get cleaner and healthier each year.

Since I purchased the property over a decade ago, other people’s trash has always needed to be picked up. No sooner do you clean up everything, and floodwaters bring a new array of debris; old tires, Ale’8 bottles, house trash, and old car parts. You name it, and I’ve picked it up. A stream is a refuge conveyor belt.

There isn’t excessive disposable income in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, and certainly not enough money to afford weekly garbage service. Luckily older properties are getting cleaned, and there is a greater appreciation for the beauty around us. The old-school mindset of burning, burying, or tossing trash out the window or over the hill is fading with each passing year. Things will never be perfect, but that is why picking up garbage is part of enjoying the great outdoors.

If you support clean water, please pick up trash in your area or street, so it doesn’t end up in the river systems, and support the Kentuck Waterway Alliance for all that they do.