Local Man Looking to Clean Up the Black River
Friday, January 25th, 2019 -- 1:46 PM
-The Jackson County Group, Friends of the Black River, is doing their part to help keep the Black River clean for outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy.I spoke with Adam Marciniak and he’s trying to get a Clark County Chapter of the group started. Adam elaborated further on the Friends of the Black River Group.
“There an organization that started down in Black River Falls in Jackson County. And their mission is to foster a community appreciation and understanding in a sustainable use of the river and its watershed by hosting educational and enjoyable programs, events and conservation projects and by promoting wise decision making when issues affect the health of the Black River basin.”
Adam then explained how he got involved with the group.
“I’m a very big fishermen and I’ve been fishing the river for some time and being out there as much as I am, and the extents of the river that I see, I started noticing that there’s been trash through all stretches of it and I just kinda started doing some research online thinking there has to be some kind of program out there to help people clean the river up. And on the DNR’s website, there was a link to their organization and I made contact with them. And they’ve been very helpful in my efforts since that contact.”
“The DNR has a lot of programs that deal with water quality and picking up the trash and aquatic life, plants, animals. Just the hub of the Wave Program through the DNR.”
The Friends of the Black River have done a lot to help the river including a project Adam and other volunteers plan on doing later this spring.
“They do two, yearly clean-ups in the Jackson County stretch of the river. They do a spring one and a fall one and we’re going to emulate that success they've had down there in Clark County by having two a year, the first being the April 27th clean-up, which would be a land based access clean-up. And then a fall clean-up where we, if the weather permitting lets us into the river, we’ll actually go in with canoes and kayaks and clean, actually, the river itself.”
“The Friends of the Black River do a lot of community involvement with educational speakers and events that they have once a month. They also do different paddling events every month. Another thing they’re very big on, because of their interest in paddling, is clearing streams and creeks that lead to the Black River of dead, fallen trees. So, they’re very involved in that and just conservation of the basin itself or the watershed area.”
Adam has some big plans for the Clark County Chapter of the group.
“I’m going to head up the Clark County Chapter, if you will, of this organization. And I’ve already put together a small committee of like-minded people to, right now, mainly help with the clean-up itself. But we also would like to grow the organization to include some of these other aspects that the Jackson County Chapter does all ready.”
“One thing that we kinda have our eyes on is there’s a canoe map out there that lists landings right here in Neillsville, but there’s no signage for those. So, we’re going to look into adopting that project to kinda just help with the area and the tourism of the area. And another project that we’ve been working with the city and the county on is getting permission to put out fishing line recycling containers. That way the monofilament lines aren’t being left on river banks and in the river and stuff. It’ll help promote some of the trash doesn’t get there in the first place. And then that Wave Program, we would also like to incorporate that into what we do because that will give us an indication of the health of those streams and, ultimately, the Black River.”
Adam said they’re looking for more volunteers.
“Anyone can get involved. Right now are main push is getting into the river and cleaning up some of the trash, so the more people that we can get for the clean up, the more effectiveness and more area that we can cover on that clean-up. Anyone that’s willing to go a little extra mile then that would be greatly appreciated to help with some of the planning or some of these other ventures in the future. But, up here in Clark County, our main venture to get this Chapter started is focusing on those river clean-ups."
Adam said they hope to continue these clean up every year and make them more of a community event.
“This first clean-up that we’re doing here in April, we’re trying to get, obviously, like I said, as many people together as we can and kinda see how it goes. What kind of support we have out there in the community and we’ll kinda refine that for the one in the fall. We plan to continue to do these two clean-ups every year, so the more member base that we can get together, those funds from the membership will definitely help the organization grow quicker to get the required tools and what not.”
“Also, if there’s people out there that have old rakes or shovels or things that might come in handy for river clean-ups, we would be accepting donations of that sort. It’s not always monetary value that organizations are looking for. It’s what we’d be spending the money on, so if people had items like that they’d be willing to donate, it would be much appreciated.”
Once again, the first cleanup is happening later this spring on April 27th and all are welcome to help.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.