By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH,IN More than 125 Wabash County residents got down and dirty on Saturday, July 30, at the Wabash River Defenders’ (WRD) Clean Out the Banks.
Fourteen teams assisted in clearing tires, bicycles, guardrails and other types of debris from the 19-mile stretch of the Wabash River that runs through the county.
“John Gettinger, past president of the Wabash River Heritage Corridor Commission, said this was the biggest volunteer cleanup of any river in Indiana,” WRD founder Michael Beauchamp told The Paper of Wabash County. “I’ve never known a group of people like what we’ve got here.
“I mean it takes an unusual person,” he continued with a laugh, “to want to go down into the river, cover themselves with mud and pull out tons and tons of junk and tires and all the stuff we’ve pulled out. We call ourselves ‘river rats’ (and) that’s meant in an endearing way. These people love the river and they’re making a difference for generations to come.”
Since 2011, the volunteer Defenders have cleared more than 137,069 pounds of debris from the river and approximately 82 percent of it has been recycle, according to Beauchamp.
“We’re getting to a place that we’re seeing a river that hasn’t been this cleared of debris in our lifetime,” Beauchamp said. “This group of people, over the past five years, has put this river in a condition that it’s not been since before World War II.”
However, despite the WRD’s best efforts, there is still more work to be done.
“We were up against some pretty tough odds with the rain we had last night (Friday) and I thought this was going to be the last Clean Out we’ve ever had,” Beauchamp said. “We’re approaching perfection but we haven’t reached it yet and part of that was due to this big rain last night.
“So see you next year.”
