Cloudy. Low 64F. Winds light and variable..

Cloudy. Low 64F. Winds light and variable.

Volunteers who took part in Saturday’s Cedar Creek Cleanup event are pictured behind of a mound of trash collected from the creek.

Cody Burniston pulls his kayak toward shore after collecting trash from Cedar Creek on Saturday.

Suzanne Davis and Michael Snider make their way down Cedar Creek in their kayaks during the cleanup event.

Volunteers who took part in Saturday’s Cedar Creek Cleanup event are pictured behind of a mound of trash collected from the creek.

Cody Burniston pulls his kayak toward shore after collecting trash from Cedar Creek on Saturday.

Suzanne Davis and Michael Snider make their way down Cedar Creek in their kayaks during the cleanup event.

AUBURN — The 3rd annual Cedar Creek Cleanup event was another success as a group of volunteers gathered Saturday under pleasant conditions to clean the creek.

Around 35 people, including members of Scout troops 597, 169, and 125, gathered at the Doc Coleman Landing north of Auburn, for the event sponsored by the Auburn Conservation Team (ACT). The volunteer event finished several miles downstream inside Auburn’s Eckhart Park.

Before getting on the water, participants had a chance to learn about some of local conservation partners. Representatives of ACRES Land Trust and Riverview Native Nursery in Spencerville were invited to talk about the vital work they do to help protect land and native wildlife.

Also on hand were a couple of local governmental agencies, including DeKalb County Soil & Water Conservation District, DeKalb County Surveyor’s Office, and the City of Auburn’s Storm Water Quality Management Program.

Participants had a chance to speak with Mike Kline, the DeKalb County surveyor and Bruce Bell, a DeKalb County Drainage Board member, to learn more about how these governmental programs work to ensure clean and healthy waterways. The Surveyor’s office also supported this year’s creek cleanup by having contractors clear out log jams along the route just prior to Saturday’s event.

Two new additions this year came courtesy of Auburn’s American Legion Post #97, who kindly donated their Honor Guard bus to make it easy for participants to get back to their own vehicles after paddling the creek and also for the use of their hot dog roller, which when combined with donations from the city’s Water Pollution Control department, provided volunteers with a light lunch afterwards.

Several other generous sponsors contributed to make this community event possible, including The Home Depot, who supplied trash grabbers and trash bags, as well as Wally’s Barber Shop in Auburn, who donated mesh bags for trash pickup events.

While the first creek cleanup in 2020 included three people, one canoe, and took around seven hours to complete, this year, over 20 people took to the water and in about three hours hauled a literal truckload worth of trash out of Cedar Creek.

“Every year at the cleanup someone says, ‘I doubt we’ll find much trash. And every year by the end, someone also says, ‘Wow. There was more trash there than I expected,” said Janet Canino, one of ACT’s cofounders.

A lawn chair, part of a blender, an air compressor, dozens of golf balls, and even a childhood classic — the red Rock ‘em Sock ‘em robot were a part of Saturday’s haul, along with lots of single use plastics. As in the past years, several tires were also removed from the creek. Best One in Auburn graciously accepted those tires for free to support the cleanup event.

Drew Wallace, who coordinates the City of Auburn’s Stormwater Management program urges people to remember that our waterways are not landfills. For example, the proper place for an old car battery is not a nearby ditch, but rather a recycling center. Advance Auto Parts in Auburn takes automotive and marine batteries and provides a $10 in-instore credit in return, while OmniSource has multiple locations and currently pays 10 cents per pound for car batteries.

Sharing recycling information and conservation ideas was what led three Auburn residents, Cody Burniston, Canino, and Bill Ward to create ACT. ACT’s projects now include consulting on wildlife-friendly habitat at Waterloo’s Veterans Park, the Eckhart Public Library, and Auburn’s 6th and Main Street downtown landscaping. ACT volunteers also plan and coordinate events such as the 15th Street Wetlands cleanup and ACRES’ Covell property cleanup, as well as helping to maintain several native plant plots at Lash and Rieke parks. One of ACT’s most recent community contributions was donating several native Bur and White Oak trees to Wild Cherry Park in St. Joe.

Tentative date for next year’s Cedar Creek cleanup is Saturday, August 26th, 2023. To get involved or to see more photos from the event, follow Auburn Conservation Team online at: www.facebook.com/AuburnConservationTeam

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