‘This is their playground’

At the banks of the Kenai River, as well as at other campsites and parks along its winding route, students spent their mornings on Wednesday and Thursday picking up trash as part of the Kenai River Spring Cleanup.

The annual event was put on this year by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association and the Kenai River Professional Guide Association. Over two days, roughly 250 students from Kenai Peninsula Borough School District schools in Kenai and Soldotna participated in the cleanup. Fishing guides joined teachers in watching over and aiding small parties of students in pursuit of the things that aren’t supposed to litter the riverbanks.

KRSA Executive Director Shannon Martin said the cleanup gets local kids out of the classroom to take care of fish habitat and help the community.

The work is “essential,” she said. Areas along the river like Soldotna Creek Park, where students also spent time cleaning, are community hubs where people come to visit, to recreate, to fish and to enjoy. Caring for the riverside habitat means seeing it persist to benefit people in the area indefinitely.

On Thursday morning, at Centennial Park, students from Soldotna Montessori Charter School in life jackets and gloves could be seen excitedly moving over rocks and branches. They carefully deposited into big yellow bags an assortment of discarded cans, cigarettes and fishing wire they recovered — calling out for adults when they encountered something sharp. Groups went up and down the riverbank and through the campsites above.

Martin said it’s “special” to see the students so engaged and excited as they clean up their community. The kids might not realize, she said, just how meaningful that work is.

“This is their playground,” she said.

This year, there’s more litter and debris than in other years, leading to many heavy yellow bags being lugged around by the students. Martin says she suspects the increased volume may be a result of last year’s glacial dam releases, which caused flooding upriver and may have pulled more trash downstream.

Another “special” addition this year was a group of 15 students from Soldotna High School’s chapter of the National Honor Society who reached out to help. Martin said the cleanup usually only involves younger students, but the volunteers came on Wednesday morning and worked with 70 kindergarten students, providing extra sets of eyes and helping hands to make the cleanup a success.

For more information about the Kenai River Spring Cleanup, find “Kenai River Sportfishing Association” on Facebook.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.