Black River Action Team makes another ‘Clean Sweep’

For a quarter of a century, volunteers from the Black River Action Team have been pulling trash of all sorts from the bed and banks of the river in and around Springfield. The recent 26th Annual RiverSweep did not disappoint.

Twenty-five volunteers joined forces early in the morning on Saturday, Sept. 6 and tackled a variety of locations around town: the bike path, the athletic fields at Riverside Middle School and around the back of the shopping plaza.

One crew used grappling hooks to extract shopping carts from below the footbridge in the shopping plaza, while intrepid members of the “Tire Brigade” scoured the riverbed between the Paddock Road bridge and the public boat launch where the Black River meets the Connecticut River.

WCFR, the local radio station, provided a live broadcast from the B.R.A.T. HQ table, and a crew from the Calvary Baptist Church grilled up hot dogs for everyone.

RiverSweep is an annual cleanup event that is held on the Saturday after Labor Day weekend. B.R.A.T. Director Kelly Stettner partners with the Connecticut River Conservancy’s annual Source To Sea cleanup for support and supplies and shares a trash tally with CRC to add to the reports from many other groups that are working to keep trash out of the water and off the banks of the Connecticut River and its tributaries.

Many thanks to all of this year’s sponsors and supporters. Clean-ups and other outreach activities for 2025 were supported, in part, by private donations and a grant administered by Watersheds United Vermont.

Click here or send a text to 802-591-0101 to learn more ways in which you can lend a hand. B.R.A.T.’s new fiscal sponsor is Tiny Seed Project; donations may be mailed directly to Tiny Seed Project (note “B.R.A.T.” in the memo section) at 154 Silver Road, East Hardwick, VT 05836.