Clubs to clean Carson River

A trip to the Carson River in Carson River Canyon can be an infuriating journey, one fraught with broken beer bottles, rusty car bodies and batteries leaking noxious antifreeze.

"It's unbelievable," said Chris Miller, Bureau of Land Management outdoor recreation manager. "The landfill is right over the hill."

She watched as Kiwanis Club co-chairmen Ron Bowman and Ray Frederick lugged a stained and battered queen-size mattress from the middle of the riverbed off of Deer Run Road.

"Careful," Miller yelled from the dirt road. "Those guys are brave. Who knows what could be living under there."

Kiwanis Club members and other service groups pick up tons - about nine huge Dumpsters full - of garbage from the river every year.

This year, they're teaming up with volunteers from the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Key Club, the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and Friends of Carson River.

Organizers hope to see at least 200 volunteers this year.

They'll clean up trash left by negligent campers, hunters, homeless people and residents who are simply too lazy to take their junk to the dump.

"People come back here for target practice and leave whatever they shoot at," Frederick said, pointing into the canyon. "We find old beer kegs out here every year."

Volunteers are also on a mission to protect Cottonwood trees from the beaver population, brought to the area in the late 1800s.

"They're not indigenous and they're going wild," Frederick said, holding up a severely whittled piece of wood to illustrate his point.

He said beaver-proof paint, mixed with sand, will be applied to the tree bases during the clean-up.

The Carson River Clean-up will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Volunteers should report to the BLM field office parking lot, 5665 Morgan Mill Road.

A lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs will be served at 1 p.m. T-shirts, snack bars, water and a meal ticket will be issued to each volunteer at check-in.

For information, call Miller at 885-6000.

Contact Robyn Moormeister at rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.

If you go

Volunteers need to bring sturdy work gloves, a hat, sunscreen and insect repellent.

All volunteers under the age of 18 will need a signed permission slip to work on the project. The slips will be available at the work site.

Parents bringing children need to sign them in before leaving.

Directions to the check-in site at the BLM parking lot, 5665 Morgan Mill Road:

From Carson City head east on Hwy. 50

Turn right on Deer Run Road

Turn right on Morgan Mill Road.

For more information or to obtain group permission slips, call Ray Frederick at 841-7163, Ron Bowman at 885-7302 or Chris Miller at 885-6000.