Sisters gets an Earth Day cleanup

Volunteers from throughout the Sisters Country gathered at the Sisters Fire Hall community room on Saturday morning to celebrate Earth Day and volunteer for one of six cleanup projects along Peterson Ridge and Whychus Creek Trails.

Litter cleanup crews scavenged the forest for trash - including appliances. One group collected a refrigerator, a car radiator, a broken toilet and a mattress among piles of smaller litter.

Others collected dumped tires and removed fire rings from casual camp sites along Whychus Creek.

"Earth Day is about taking care of the earth," said Bill Anthony of Sisters Ranger District, "but a lot of it is for and about people. It is about people coming together to share their experience in being good stewards of the earth, water, wildlife, wilderness, and all the other things that are important for people today and people tomorrow."

Kathleen Dowd-Gailey, of National Forest Foundation (NFF), the congressionally chartered nonprofit arm of the U.S. Forest Service, helped organize the event.

The NFF is starting a

partnership with the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce called the Sisters Volunteer Bank. Americorp and Chamber volunteer Karly Hedrick is on board to bring together community partners to create a clearinghouse for volunteer efforts.

The event had many

contributors. In addition to the prizes contributed by Columbia Sportswear, High Country Disposal donated a dumpster to aid in the cleanup.

Volunteers received a special gift from the Sisters Ranger District silviculture crew, who donated sugar pines for any volunteers who wanted to take them home.

Kayla Herriman and Dave Priest were there representing the silviculture crew.

"We take care of forests, replant, thinning, anything pre-timber that pertains to planting and tending young trees," Priest said.

They have planted about 25,000 acres of land burned in the B & B fire to date.

Two Forest Service employees volunteering for the day, Mike Keown and Mark Dreyer, went to Peterson Ridge with USFS law enforcement officer Fred Perl to retrieve mattresses they heard had been thrown down the side of the mountain. Those mattresses turned out to be five mattresses and box springs, a headboard, luggage, barbells, two microwave ovens and several unused tubes of caulking.

The list didn't stop there.

Keown and Dreyer climbed down a slippery slope pulling a cable while Perl leaned precariously over the precipice handling the winch.

"It's a crime on Forest Service lands to dump anything," Perl said. "Even lawn trimmings and garbage, because it could contain noxious weeds. It costs the taxpayers if you dump it."

Cleanup crews along Whychus Creek also found a set of tires, lots of garbage - some of it marked as a possible hazard.

Anthony advised that anyone who encounters "tagged" trash along the trail should leave it alone. It could be a chemical hazard or explosive.

Several people have damaged the Whychus Creek streambed by driving across the river.

"We've put up rocks to define stopping areas to contain people from driving into the riparian and sensitive stream channels," Anthony said.