A Nonprofit is hosting an inaugural garbage cleanup of a popular lake in Wasatch County this Saturday.
Fish for Garbage has been cleaning up the lower Prover River for about five years. This Saturday they’ll be cleaning up Strawberry Reservoir for the first time. Fish for Garbage Secretary Lexi Grimes explains why they’re cleaning up Strawberry.
“It’s one of our favorite places to fish,” Grimes explained. “It's also a hot spot for anglers and recreators in general. It's also pretty windy out there typically and so it's also a hot spot for trash to kind of blow around and blow across the reservoir. We saw a need and we want to help and do whatever we can to fix that.”
Those interested in participating should meet at Chicken Creek East located on the north shoreline of Strawberry. The entire day runs from about 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Grimes says the day starts with a breakfast provided by Kodiak Cakes.
“At 8:30 we’ll start our pancake breakfast and then the cleanup will start at 10:00,” Grimes continued. “Then we’ll also host a barbecue from Coalatree at noon. Then we'll have prizes kind of going on throughout the day around 3:00 to 4:00. Then we're going to have a potluck dinner that night and then you have the option to camp with us.”
Bags of garbage can be turned in at lunch for a BBQ voucher and opportunity drawing tickets. You can turn in more garbage for more tickets to increase your chances of winning prizes from local sponsors. Prizes include a Traeger grill, trips and flyrods.
Fish for Garbage Co-founder Brad Greeno says the organization will provide garbage bags, gloves and water filling stations.
“We’ve got a lot of people come in a lot of volunteers from Vivint that are coming out to help,” Greeno said. “So, we’ll have a bunch of them scattered throughout the marinas where they can tell people where to go, what to do, and all that good stuff.”
Greeno described the work that 200 volunteers were able to do in April over the course of one day.
“For the Provo River cleanup, we ended up with two tons of garbage which is, I think 5,000 pounds,” Greeno said. “It was a big one.”
Fish for Garbage is hoping to surpass the 200 volunteers they had at the last clean up. The group will be cleaning up the Green River in August, and the Weber River in September. They also host the Heber Outdoor Festival in the fall. For more information click here.
