Volunteers sought for cleanup of Flathead River
Two visitors skip stones across the Middle Fork of the Flathead River in West Glacier on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
The Flathead Rivers Alliance, the Flathead Basin Commission and the Flathead Conservation District are seeking volunteers to clean up the three forks of the Flathead River on Saturday.
The countywide Flathead Waters Cleanup event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers are needed to help in several capacities, including hiking the shoreline and floating or scuba diving the river to pick up litter.
Glacier National Park and Flathead National Forest crews run routine patrols along the river, while the Flathead River Alliance, a new nonprofit, coordinates volunteer "river ambassador" crews who staff information booths at popular river access points and serve as citizen scientists collecting river-user and wildlife data.
Crews will embark on focused patrols during Saturday's cleanup event, inventorying larger trash and debris in and along the river to be removed later. They also will support volunteer scuba teams in harder-to-reach river locations.
An after-party and prize giveaway will follow the cleanup from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Sacred Waters Brewing Co. along U.S. 2.
More information about the event can be found at flatheadrivers.org/get-involved, or by contacting Emilie Henry with the city of Kalispell at ehenry@kalispell.com or 406-249-2241.