Paddle Without Pollution in Pittsburgh announced their watershed stewardship event schedule for 2014 includes 18 cleanups: Ten Mile Creek (Marianna); Slippery Rock Creek; Moraine, Erie Bluffs, and Presque Isle State Parks; Kiskiminetas River (Leechburg); Allegheny River (Franklin); Chartiers Creek (South Fayette and Upper St. Clair); and the Youghiogheny, Ohio, and Monongahela rivers.

In 2013, volunteer crews removed 16.6 tons of illegally dumped debris and litter from waterways in Western Pennsylvania, exceeding 2012’s total of 15.3 tons.  

PWP’s watershed stewardship events provide exercise, encourage teamwork, and offer a chance to participate in positive change. No experience is necessary and volunteers may borrow a kayak or canoe from the PWP fleet.

In addition to watershed stewardship events, PWP is expanding their Watershed/Paddling Education Program for Urban Youth, and continuing work on the Presque Isle State Park Water Trail and accompanying film. The film will debut in June 2014. PWP was recently awarded a Western Pennsylvania Environmental Award from Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

PWP is a non-profit organization whose mission is to restore and protect the health of rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands through hands-on stewardship and education, thereby benefiting the region’s communities, economy, and quality of life.

PWP operates with very little or no negative impact to the environment, using volunteers in kayaks and canoes to get into ecologically sensitive, shallow, and inaccessible areas that land-based cleanup crews cannot reach.

For more information about how to get involved with PWP, visit the Paddle Without Pollution website or send email to: paddlewithoutpollution@comcast.net. 

4/21/2014