It was a beautiful summer day on the Kalama River, and Jarrod Kirkley y was doing his favorite thing: fishing. Soon he felt a tug on his line, and Kirkley reeled in a glistening steelhead. As he pulled it in on shore, it began to flop around.
“Somehow a hypodermic needle got stuck in the side of the fish,” Kirkley said. “I was like, ‘Seriously? I’m not going to take this home and eat it.’ ”
So Kirkley released the fish. As he did so, he looked around. The beach near Beginner's Hole at the Fallert Creek Fish Hatchery was littered with trash.
“I was like ‘Wow, this is really sad,’ ” Kirkley said. “Our rivers need us. They’re being destroyed.'”
Kirkley’s observation that day was not the first time he had noticed that local rivers were trashed by debris by fishermen, swimmers and boaters. But it was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
In response, Kirkley founded Riverjunky in September, a nonprofit that awards prizes to recreationists for picking up trash near bodies of water. Originally, Kirkley bought prizes for participants with his own money but quickly realized it wasn't sustainable after spending nearly $12,000 of his own money.
Now, the conservationist's effort is sponsored by 16 local businesses that help provide the prizes, including fishing poles and lures, clothing and tackle boxes to individuals who provide photographic evidence that they picked up trash that would have otherwise ended up in the water. It can be a big bag of trash or a beer bottle − participants will be rewarded regardless, as long as they upload the photo to the Riverjunky Facebook page.
“The sponsors are all for it,” Kirkley said. “Because they also know that the rivers are slowly being lost.”
Kirkley has been fishing his entire life. He grew up in Southern California and spent much of his youth fishing on the open ocean before moving to the Pacific Northwest. He’s lived in the Castle Rock area for the past two years, working full time as a general contractor.
“(Riverjunky) was a side project, but now it’s turning into a main project,” Kirkley said. He’s got big dreams for the effort, which already has 10,000 volunteers signed up through the company’s website, riverjunky.us.
Kirkley said Riverjunky's likely seen so much interest because he's promoted the business through several large Facebook groups, including Washington State Fishing.
Kirkley plans to hold big river clean-up events every six weeks or so. The first one was in November on the Cowlitz River. Seventy one volunteers picked up 1,466 pounds of trash in about an hour. The next event is scheduled for Jan. 21 on the Puyallup River, with subsequent gatherings planned for the Kalama, Lewis and Columbia rivers.
http://tdn.com/news/local/local-avid-fisherman-founds-nonprofit-to-encourage-river-cleanup/article_2db85da6-7847-53ed-aab7-c43d97bb2c44.htmlContact
Have you noticed some trash near your local waterway? Report it to 1-866-RVR-JNKY (1-866-787-5659) and Riverjunky might schedule a river clean up event near you.
Submit photos of you and the trash you've collected at: facebook.com/riverjunkyWA.
Riverjunky sponsors:
Lamiglas
Sportsmans Warehouse
Vortex Optics
Outdoor Emporium
Simms
Do-It Molds
Dave's Tangle Free
Exotic Nutrients
Beaver Creek Construction
Clancy's Guided Sportfishing
Caddis Waders
BobberDown Jigs
Alpha Angler Charters
SteelheadBeads.com
Offshore Northwest Charters
Leadhead Guide Service
Starbucks Coffee
First Strike Lures
ProSource Graphics
Washington State Fishing
Northwest Wild Country
