Help cleanup the Blue River this Saturday

KANSAS CITY Mo --A signature river for the Kansas City area -- the Blue River -- will get a cleanup on Saturday, April 2, and volunteers are welcome to help boost the river corridor’s scenery, fish and wildlife.

The 21st annual Project Blue River Rescue will be from 8 a.m. to noon with headquarters at the Lakeside Nature Center, 4701 E. Gregory Blvd., in Kansas City.

Organizers have mapped out 26 worksites along the river where trash pickup is needed. People of all ages and abilities will be matched with an appropriate worksite.

Participants will be provided with breakfast, lunch, t-shirts and supplies necessary to safely collect trash, such as gloves.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is providing trash bags, first-aid kits, t-shirts and other supplies for the cleanup.

Some volunteers will be working at a newly designated trash pickup site at the Blue Valley Park on East 23rd Street and Topping Avenue. The park is on the west side of the Blue River. Established as a Kansas City park in 1943, it is near where boating and fishing resorts operated on the Blue in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The park has wooded areas and an oxbow lake where trash has accumulated or been illegally dumped.

“We’re estimating there are 600 tires in that one spot alone,” said Vicki Richmond, coordinator for Project Blue River Rescue. “In one day we can make a difference in that location.”

For information about volunteering, contact Richmond at 816-812-5166, or call the Lakeside Nature Center at 816-513-8960.

MDC also is a co-sponsor of the Missouri Stream Team program where local volunteers work on projects year-round such as trash pickup and monitoring water quality. The Friends of the Lakeside Nature Center Stream Team No. 175 is one of the program’s longest-running teams and works to improve the Blue River.

For more information on Missouri Stream Teams, go to http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/programs/get-involved/missouri-stream-team.