6th clean-up another rousing success
Fontana Dam – All were encouraged to help keep Fontana Lake beautiful during the sixth annual Fontana Lakeshore Trash Clean-Up, which was held from Friday-Sunday.
About 150 volunteers helped, starting at two locations on the lake: Fontana Village Marina in Graham County and Fontana Lake Estates in adjoining Swain County.
“This is the best year we’ve had people to volunteer,” commented Fontana Village Marina Manager Brandon Jones.
This year, between 60,000 – 65,000 pounds of trash was scooped up. In one day, seven, 30-yard dumpsters and 12, 15-yard dumpsters were filled with trash from the effort
In the span of six years, a total of about 300,000 pounds of trash has been removed from Fontana Lake during the clean-up. Jones reflected on the first year of the clean-up, when there were only 12 volunteers and they pulled out 22,000 pounds of trash in a day and a half.
Today, he is grateful that there is way more help – thanks to the event being better publicized.
Most people who come to visit Fontana Lake are volunteers who want to participate in the the event; Jones estimates the workforce is about 80 percent visitors.
The event is important because everyone shares the lake and in the bigger picture, the planet.
“We all live down stream,” said Jones. “It’s not our trash, but it’s our planet.”
When asked what was the most unusual item found this year, Jones held up a small, purple toy cow and placed it back on the boat’s driving console.
The most common item found were shoes. Jones specified that it is always single shoes, flip flops or tennis shoes – and never as a pair.
Jones’ efforts to launch a lake-wide clean-up have netted a pair of distinctive recognitions: Fontana Marina won the “Ripple Effect” award from the Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful Association in 2020 – which spans seven states across the Southeast – after the 2019 clean-up yielded over 200,000 of trash alone. Jones was also named the 2023 recipient of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation Public Lands Conservationist of the Year.
He is also responsible for introducing the United States to the first-ever “Seabin,” which found its way to Fontana Lake. The Australian-based product acts as a filter of sorts for the lake and is described as a combination of a pool skimmer and a trash can.
Publisher/editor Kevin Hensley also contributed to this report.