Swan Lakers clean up the Swan River

The Swan Lakers has been cleaning the Swan River of trash each of the past eight years at the end of the summer season. We float and walk the banks along the Swan River between Rainbow Drive and Bear Creek, where it gets very heavy use by recreational floaters during the summer and unfortunately some of them leave garbage behind.

The volume of trash in the river has been steadily declining over the past several years. In the beginning we removed pickup loads of debris each season.  The most common items we still find are beverage containers, especially beer cans and worst of all – beer bottles.  These bottles, which easily break, cause a safety hazard to all that enjoy this pristine river.  Lake County has a sign posted at the Rainbow access in an attempt to stop the use of glass containers on the river and Swan Lakers have provided free mesh trash bags there for the past two summers.  We believe these efforts have helped and we also believe that floaters are less inclined to drop trash in a river when they don’t see other trash in the water.  Too lovely to litter!

Swan Lakers will continue to clean up the river in the future and really appreciate the caring people who use our bags and help to keep the Swan River clean. 

Hugh Corn, Swan Lakers President