Xstream Cleanup focuses on debris from floods, invasive plants

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By Tom Saul | Saturday, August 16, 2008 |

Derek Cappaert of Andalusia, Ill., picks up a pair of headlights from a wooded area near South Concord Street in Davenport on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008. Cappaert said he came back to volunteer for a second year because last year was a positive experience. (Andrew Link/Quad-City Times) Buy this Photo

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John DeWitt led the members and chaperones for Boy Scout Troop 109 and Cub Scout Pack 109 from Seton Catholic School in Moline down a wooded path to a rocky river bank clearing, only to find out he had taken them in the wrong direction.

Still, a crew stayed behind to pick up trash and garbage during Saturday’s Xstream Cleanup organized by Living Lands & Waters, before reversing course to head over to the Smith’s Island Recreation Area near LeClaire where they were scheduled to participate in the event.

“Someone besides Mr. DeWitt should lead,” joked John Mickiewicz, one of the chaperones.

“I’m not here to lead. I’m here to organize,” DeWitt shot back.

The 33 volunteers then got a tour of the mile-long trail on Smith’s Island from park ranger Steven Vacek, cleaning as they went, before spreading wood chips on a portion of the path.

The group was among 1,000 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts and 1,452 other volunteers who fanned out across eight counties and 59 sites on rivers, streams and public lands for the fifth annual edition of the cleanup.

In the process, they picked up 2,422 bags of trash, 2,352 tires, 36 appliances, 53 bicycles and 32 pieces of furniture, said Erin Robinson, spokeswoman for a committee that plans the cleanup.

Among the more exotic finds of the day, Robinson said, were a $100 bill and half a boat at Nahant Marsh, two ceramic lions in Duck Creek at Eastern Avenue in Davenport, a safe in a drainage ditch at 14th Avenue in Rock Island, and a wallet containing $185 cash and identification along the Mississippi River at Modern Woodmen Park.

Flooding in the region in April and June probably increased the amount of trash and debris that needed to be picked up, said Chad Pregracke, founder of Living Lands & Waters, but it also made it easier to spot and collect.

“The weeds haven’t grown back like they would normally be, so we could clean more thoroughly,” said Pregracke, who led a crew down the Illinois side of the Mississippi from Sunset Marina in Rock Island to Buffalo, Iowa. “There was a lot more than I expected. Except for the flooding, I would have expected to find less.”

Indeed, the area along South Concord Street from the Interstate 280 bridge to the west was littered with tires and automotive debris, much of it apparently loosed from an auto salvage yard during the flooding, said Brian Ritter, a facilitator at Nahant Marsh. Crews picked up about 700 tires, gas tanks and other metal auto waste.

Toni Wilcox, of Bettendorf, led her two daughters, McKenzie, 9, and K.T., 7, along with a friend, on an expedition along Wapello Avenue in west Davenport. They picked up everything from the unusual to the mundane.

McKenzie boasted of the animal skull and bones they found, while K.T. noted the aluminum cans, beer bottles and cigarette boxes picked up by the group. Asked what they learned from their participation, the girls voiced practical and aesthetic concerns.

“You shouldn’t litter because you could get arrested,” K.T. said.

“And it makes the world an uglier place when you do it,” added McKenzie.

This year’s cleanup also put greater emphasis on eradication of invasive plant species that, left unchecked, can make it more difficult for native plants to thrive. At four sites, two in Davenport, one in Bettendorf and one in Moline, crews spent time cutting back or rooting out non-native plants.

At Nahant Marsh in west Davenport, crews chopped down or pulled up trailer load after trailer load of cottonwood, willows and Queen Ann’s lace. One crew cleaned up debris while another dealt with invasive plants, said Sheri Colman, of Friends of Nahant Marsh.

Tanya Duncan and Adriann Sheppard, both of Bettendorf, spent the morning pulling up Queen Ann’s lace in a meadow at the Nahant nature preserve. There was quite a bit of it, identifiable by its lacy white flowering top. But, by the time the cleanup ended, they had helped to pull up about 90 percent of what was visible.

“If someone doesn’t get it, it can suffocate out the native plants,” Sheppard said.

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.