Highlighting - Riversweepers

Riversweepers: Keeping our waterways clean and reporting when they are not

If you have not been introduced to Riversweepers, let me be the one to turn you on to an amazing grassroots community that is helping our paddling community and our local environment. Riversweepers is the Anne Arundel County Watershed Steward Academy Capstone Project from Beth Paquette. Beth is a seasoned paddler and an all-around wonderful person. The Riversweepers project is something we all can take part in to help our local waterways.

Beth’s hope is that the Riversweeping program will seek to educate paddlers and empower them to clean up the waterways we all enjoy by picking up and retrieving trash when they see it, safely. As well as learning how to spot environmental concerns and how to report issues so they can be handled before they get out of hand.

To help with this mission of empowering paddlers, Beth designed and created reusable kits that paddlers can take with them for trash clean-up. The kits include a reusable mesh bag and a 3D-printed trash picker hook that attaches to your paddle to make trash retrieval easier.

Beth has also hosted an in-person presentation about environmental concerns to draw awareness to the issues of litter in our waterways. The presentation to paddlers helped define what to look for while paddling, including recognizing algae blooms and sediment plumes, and reviewing how and where to report sightings. Thanks to Elle Bassett, South West, and Rhode Riverkeeper, for joining Beth. Beth plans to host a virtual session of this presentation on July 13, 2023, click here for the link to more information. There will be a video posted for those that might miss it.

Riversweepers is encouraging all paddlers to become a Riversweeper by joining the Facebook group and following Riversweeper on Instagram. Post your trashy finds from your paddles with the hashtag #riversweepers and tag us. Or better yet, organize a group clean-up paddle with friends and focus the entire paddle on sweeping the river. Beth will be collecting information on how much trash is pulled out of our local waterways.