150 turn out for annual Kiwanis Club river cleanup

An estimated 150 - including Carson High's Naval Junior ROTC cadets - turned out to help clean trash and debris from along the Carson River Saturday.

Bryan Bisbee, who with Lee Pisiewski helped organize the first Carson River clean up project in 1990, said it has grown into a huge project since then, involving not only Kiwanis members and the NJROTC but the Boy Scouts and community members.

"It's a good service project," he said. "A lot of service clubs just throw money at projects. We do it."

Ron Bowman, who has directed the effort most of the past 19 years, described it as a great project to get kids involved in service as well.

"You can't say enough about the ROTC," Bowman said.

Pointing to two huge, nearly full waste containers, Rusty McCain of the Carson City Parks Department said that junk is only a small part of what the volunteers collected this year.

"You don't see what was hauled off already," he said, saying a couple of dump trucks had already left for the Carson City landfill.

Bowman said it's amazing the kinds of things people dump along the river, especially in Brunswick Canyon. He, Bisbee and several other volunteers had just finished pulling the remains of a rider lawnmower out of the canyon along with an old refrigerator, a sofa, bicycles and construction waste. Numerous old car and truck tires were removed along with dozens of bags full of smaller junk and garbage.

Bowman had to use a chain tied to the back of his truck to pull some of the wreckage up the bank along the river.

Mark Struble of the Bureau of Land Management said four teams collected garbage all along the river from Silver Saddle Ranch to Brunswick Canyon. He said over the years, the project has helped greatly reduce the amount of trash along the scenic route the river takes through the capital.