When people litter, much of it eventually washes into our streams, rivers and lakes. As Roger Clapp, Executive Director of WATR (Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River) puts it, “With our steep slopes and intense rain storms, road litter quickly becomes river litter. No one has figured a way to repeal the law of gravity.”

To combat the problem, local civic groups, businesses and volunteers throughout the Smokies often group together in organized river cleanups — just as this group did in late June. Organized by the Nantahala Gorge Association, WATR and the Green Women of Swain County, half of the volunteers worked the banks and roadsides. Others worked in rafts supplied by Wildwater, Ltd. Rafting and Endless River Adventures. The end result was a trailer-load of trash that will never reach Fontana Lake.