Local outfitter partners with 4-H youth to keep the river clean
Pettit’s Canoe Rental hosted its annual North Fork River float trip clean-up in cooperation with several local citizens and the Webster County 4-H program. This pile of trash was the result of the first of two days of clean up efforts. A second day provided another similar haul. Pictured, from left, are: Lacie Lees, Tenley Clark, Kinzie Clark, Travis Alexander, Braelynn Lees, Matt Clark, Kody Clark, Aalea Clark, Lucas Aleander, Thomas Bassinger, Jeff, Mark Alexander, Emma Alexander, Daniel Taylor, Dan Taylor and Ashlynn Lees.
The trash collected often includes large pieces of tin, which canoers ‘fish’ from the bottom of the river or off the banks and carry in their canoes until they reach an exit point.
Editor’s note: This article is being reprinted with permission.
Ozark County outfitter Pettit’s Canoe Rental, LLC and the Pettit family have built, encouraged and supported a legacy of responsible river stewardship along the North Fork of the White River. It is in that effort that last month the canoe outfitter hosted its annual clean up tradition in cooperation with several engaged local citizens and youth members and volunteer leaders from the Webster County 4-H program.
Volunteers spent two days floating the 16-mile stretch from Hammond Camp access (North Fork Recreation Area) downriver to Dawt Mill, making hundreds of stops along the river’s channel, banks and gravel bars to gather trash and debris into canoes provided by Pettit’s. Items removed from the river by the clean-up volunteers were off-loaded at Pettit Campground, Patrick Bridge and Dawt Mill, and were disposed of by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Pettit’s Canoe rental has partnered with volunteer Missouri 4-H families to accomplish the annual river clean-up effort for many years. These volunteers are sometimes pro-active community leaders and at other times registered participants of the Missouri Stream Team program, which began organizing and recognizing the efforts of volunteers involved in river conservation and stewardship in 1988. For more than four decades, participating 4-H youth that choose to partner with Pettit’s for the river clean-up project have not only learned to practice and value stewardship, leadership and cooperation as citizens and neighbors of local communities, they have also been provided with opportunities to learn about Missouri streams, watersheds, habitats, canoeing skills and most importantly the multi-faceted significance of keeping rivers clean.
“These 4-Hers make an impact. It tugs at your heart-strings to watch motivated 4-H youth work together to ‘fish’ glass or tin from the current of the river. As they accomplish the task, they realize their effort not only makes the waters cleaner but makes our streams safer for their neighbors floating by to enjoy,” said Emma Alexander, a Missouri 4-H volunteer that has been helping to promote the clean up project for the past 20 years.
Pettit’s Canoe Rental has been the host and sponsor of the annual river clean-up event for nearly 50 years. The vision of local youth, local businesses and local Conservation teams partnering together to keep the North Fork of the White River beautiful for neighbors and visiting guests began with Bud Pettit, founder of Pettit’s Canoe Rental, and Dale Morrison, a local Conservation Department employee. The clean-up has been an annual tradition since the late 1970s, cancelled or modified very few years due to unsafe river conditions. Three generations of the Pettit family have served the floaters of the North Fork through Pettit’s Canoe Rental since 1972.