Cape Fear Trek Yields 

 Boatloads of Garbage 



Photo by C.fi. Edgerton 



By Carla B. Burgess 



Three fishermen sit along the 

 banks of the Cape Fear River, watch- 

 ing their lines and, every now and 

 then, casting a glance at the commo- 

 tion on the water. 



Six canoes glide over the glassy 

 surface of the river just outside of 

 Fayetteville, darting in and out of 

 the arches of draping willow oak 

 branches along the shore. Small 

 motor boats hum along the river too, 

 making frequent stops on the bank 

 near the fishermen. 



Cathy and Bill Merritt motor to the 

 shore with their first haul of the 

 morning. Four large trash bags yield 

 the catch of the day— bottles, cans, 

 bait cups, a pair of pants, a tire and 

 rim, a shoe, plastic bags. 



They anchor the front of the skiff 



Off and on all morning we motor 

 up the river until we see a trashy 

 stretch of bank that is accessible. 

 Then we get out and search for 

 debris. We find it along the water's 

 edge, nestled in the ground cover, 

 wedged in fallen trees and even hid- 

 den under blankets of poison ivy. 



"This is disgusting," Cathy says, 

 wondering what impact it would 

 have if we dumped the debris into 

 the offenders' kitchens. 



Bill and Cathy are perturbed that 

 Big Sweep doesn't entice people 

 who need its educational message 

 most. 



"The ones that throw this stuff 

 down aren't the ones out here pick- 

 ing it up today' ' Bill says. 



Bill and Cathy say they heard 

 about Big Sweep on the radio, then 



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in the wet sand, and I help Cathy 

 add the bags to the pile on the shore. 



"Catch anything?" Bill hollers to 

 the fishermen on the bank. 



One of the men nods his head left 

 and right. 



Bill motions with his head toward 

 the pile of bags. "You see all this 

 trash we've been picking up. You're 

 not going to leave any of yours 

 behind, are you?" 



"Naw," the fisherman says, as we 

 push off. 



called Anne Morriss, the coordinator 

 for the region and also for this site 

 cleanup. They live on the river a few 

 miles away and use it for boating and 

 skiing. 



The Merritts are among 20 volun- 

 teers who came this morning to the 

 boating access area on N.C. 87 south 

 of Fayetteville. By early afternoon, 

 they will have cleaned nearly 4 miles 

 of the Cape Fear River, which feeds 

 into the Atlantic Ocean below 

 Wilmington. 



"I think fishermen are the worst 

 offenders," says Mike Hillenbrand, a 

 motorboat volunteer. "I've seen a lot 

 of bait cans and cups." 



A canoe volunteer, Candace Curry, 

 is surprised by all the containers of 

 chicken livers apparently left by 

 fishermen who use them for bait. 



"You'd think they're the natural- 

 ists,' ' she says. 



The canoes stay downriver during 

 the cleanup, and the powerboats go 

 the other way, checking back with 

 the paddlers often to relieve them of 

 any full trash bags. By the end of the 

 cleanup, the group has netted more 

 than a half-ton of debris from the 

 river. 



Many things impress me about my 

 first Big Sweep, including the at- 

 titude of the volunteers. Most of the 

 people don't know each other, yet 

 they are friendly and cooperative. 



In their pursuit of trash— things 

 that are often wet, filthy and 

 heavy— they are determined and am- 

 bitious. Volunteers pull tires and 

 even a TV set from the water. Cathy 

 Merritt wrestles with a hollowed-out 

 appliance filled with mud. 



Even after everything I have heard 

 about Big Sweep finds, I am un- 

 prepared for the grossness of it all. 

 Especially the coils of steel belts and 

 charred patches of ground we find 

 all along the banks— the remains of 

 mounds of tires that have been 

 burned there. 



Even leader Anne Morriss, who 

 heads Cumberland Urban Recycling 



