Operation Clean Stream 2019 on the Meramec River

On Saturday, August 24, 2019 Tom and I participated in Operation Clean Stream sponsored by the Open Space Council and many other supporting organizations. I’ve done several of these trash cleanup floats before but this was Tom’s first time. We had a blast because we love to get dirty, we want to do our part to keep our rivers clean and any excuse to get out and be on the water is a good one! We brought our kayaks to the beach on the Meramec River and met up with other volunteers who brought their own vessels. The people I end up floating with on these cleanup days are terrific and we hope we get to float with these folks again. I floated with leader Tim before in 2016 – here is an article I wrote about that day:
Fit and Healthy on Route 66: Two Sections of the Lower Meramec – Part I

untying kayaks at Castlewood State Park
Here is Tom around 7:30 am untying our kayaks that I transported on top of my Jeep. You can tell by his body language he is pretty eager to get started!
unloading the trash
Here is our group’s trash haul in the foreground at Greentree Park in Kirkwood. We were pretty exhausted by this point but the Open Space Council fed us a nice lunch to revive us a little for the trip home! Loading the kayaks is easy in the morning, not so easy in the afternoon!

I took a couple of videos too:

Tom bags a tire:
https://youtu.be/EN4QmrwSWn8

Some of the members of our group share their favorite finds on a sandbar near Highway 141:
https://youtu.be/vrrsEfZF8qg

Water hyacinth I collected on the Meramec River on August 24, 2019.
Water hyacinth I collected on the Meramec River on August 24, 2019.

I found some water hyacinth along the way and picked up as much as I could. I want to use it in our pond which should be finished soon, but even more importantly I want to get it out of the natural body of water because it’s an invasive species. More info about water hyacinth here: http://stopaquatichitchhikers.org/hitchhikers/plants-water-hyacinth/

This is the first time I can recall seeing water hyacinth in a natural body of water in Missouri. Our winters should kill it – that may or may not mitigate the threat – I don’t know.  What if some floats downstream to a warmer state? That’s why I grabbed as much as I could. Here is some Missouri specific information: https://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2008/01/not-state

3 thoughts on “Operation Clean Stream 2019 on the Meramec River

    1. Yes that is the quarry everyone wants. Last year I got one and I don’t know how many people said “nice tire!” LOL We risked tipping if we put any more tires on the kayak so we had to pass some up… next year we’ll try to get another I guess!

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