San Marcos River Cleanup Seeks Volunteers

In order to keep San Marcos beautiful and to preserve the San Marcos River environment and just to have a great time as a community, all residents are encouraged to help with the upcoming spring cleanup of the entire river.

The San Marcos River Foundation and Texas River Protection Association are looking for volunteers for the 29 annual Great Texas River Cleanup. One of the largest river cleanups in the world will take place this Saturday, March 1, from 9:30 a.m. to noon and will cover the whole 90 miles of the San Marcos River. Texas State students and local residents will help with the cleanup in town by doing bank walking and picking up trash in the parks, streets, road crossings, and ditches. Meanwhile, canoe clubs from all over Texas will be cleaning up the river downstream. San Marcos River Foundation executive director Dianne Wassenich explains why there is a lot of trash on the streets.

“It’s these tributaries where it collects and then when it rains it rushes. Every street drains into the river in the entire town.”
– Dianne Wassenich

Wassenich also emphasized the importance of wearing the right clothes during the cleanup, avoiding flip flops due to some possible steep slopes and choosing tennis shoes instead.

“You need to wear long sleeves and long pants and if you have a pair of gloves, bring them! It’s always good to protect your skin because in the winter you can’t see leaves on poison ivy, so you don’t know if you are touching it.”
-Dianne Wassenich

Volunteers are also needed to help bake desserts, prepare barbecue, and help serve food at the thank you supper held Saturday evening at Shady Grove campground.

“Everybody is welcome; people of all ages come out: camp fire kids, retired people, lots of sororities and fraternities, and clubs like Water Aid and ECO that care about the river. It’s just fun to be outdoors with a whole lot of people cleaning up and making the town and the creek look good.”
– Dianne Wassenich

To register as a volunteer, visit City of San Marcos website to sign up online or come in for a volunteer call on Saturday at 9:30 a.m.at San Marcos Rec Hall Building where you’ll be able to fuel up on coffee and breakfast tacos.

Veronika Kondratieva, KTSW News