The Annual Flathead Waters Cleanup Hits the Banks on Saturday
For the sixth year in a row, conservationists and community members will come together to celebrate the local waters, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Flathead River’s Wild and Scenic designation
By Jules Lingenfelter
This Saturday, the Flathead Basin will be flooded with people walking along the shores and floating across the waves. It’s not only hopefuls looking to take advantage of the warm weekend, but community members scouring the water for trash.
The annual Flathead Waters Cleanup is coming back for its sixth year and will be held on Aug. 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The basin-wide event is a collaborative effort between the Flathead Rivers Alliance (FRA), the Western Montana Conservation Commission (WMCC), Flathead Conservation District, Flathead Lakers, and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, bringing locals together to enjoy the pristine river system while working to keep it clean.
“Really, it’s a celebration of place and then providing an opportunity for people to engage in volunteerism,” FRA Executive Director Sheena Pate said. “We want people to really celebrate the river system up in our neck of the woods and have an opportunity to pull together their family members, friends, and coworkers to get out on the river.”
The Flathead Waters Cleanup event has drawn a typical turnout of hundreds of volunteers collecting over 3,000 pounds of trash across the basin’s many streams, creeks, lakes, and the three forks of the Flathead River. As the event continues to grow — including two separate afterparties to celebrate the volunteers’ hard work — its rather humble origins serve as a pointed reminder of the impact of community engagement.
In 2021, AmeriCorps member Emilie Henry, who worked for the organization formerly known as the Flathead Basin Commission, but which has since been absorbed by the WMCC, pitched a small initiative to clean a section of the river.
“The original version for something like this was to just do like a mile of the Flathead River, just a tiny little cleanup in a small section of town,” said Henry, who now works as a program coordinator at WMCC. As a part of her Americorps program, Henry was tasked with developing a volunteer event related to picking up trash in the Kalispell area. The idea quickly grew, bringing in the WMCC’s four other cohosts and local sponsors. “Suddenly, by bringing in all these partners, it just kind of spiraled into this much bigger event than we could have even imagined.”
The success of the initial cleanup has since sparked a yearly tradition for conservationists and community members alike. “Since then it’s only gotten bigger and better and we’ve pulled more partners and expanded,” Henry said.
This year’s cleanup stands out as it coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Flathead River’s Wild and Scenic designation in 1976. The Flathead River shares a storied history with the federal designation — the 219 miles of running water served as inspiration for the 1968 Wild & Scenic Rivers Act due to the concerted efforts of Montana biologists John and Frank Craighead. In the 1950s, the brothers campaigned heavily alongside conservationists and Flathead locals to preserve the wild waters against a series of proposed dams. The Wild and Scenic designation offers the highest level of federal protection to only 1% of waters in the U.S.
“We’re riding the wave of excitement as we move towards that 50th anniversary in October,” Pate said. The celebrations kicked off in July with the Flathead Wild & Scenic River Fest held at Maranette Park in Columbia Falls. Pate also hinted at an upcoming birthday party in October that is currently in the works.
“We’ve created some new events to celebrate,” Pate said, “but also we’re hoping that people will be inspired, especially this year knowing the significance of the river system, to really come out for the Flathead Waters Cleanup on Saturday.”
Though it’s too late to receive the meal vouchers that the first 40 volunteers were awarded, anyone interested in participating is able to sign up at the registration site up until the event’s start at 9 a.m. Saturday. Participants are encouraged to spend as little or as much time on the water as they would like and can choose their designated cleanup spot from listed bodies of water or add their own. Those hoping to clean along the three forks of the Flathead River can coordinate with FRA, who has partnered with rafting companies to provide staff and rafts for the day.
“I think the great thing about this event is that people can kind of decide where they want to clean up. It’s very flexible. They can decide how long they want to be out on the water,” Henry said.
After a day’s hard work, all participants are invited to cool off at the two afterparties hosted at Sacred Waters Brewery and the Flathead Lakers’ office between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. There, prizes will be raffled off, volunteers can weigh their trash in the hopes of collecting the title of “most trash collected” and submit to other categories, including weirdest trash found and most team spirit.
“The best part, one of the greatest memories for me, is just the return volunteers that we’ve had,” Henry said. She recalled one group that’s been participating since the first event and showed up last year with matching team t-shirts. “Getting to see them kind of grow every year and come back and continue this tradition, I think that’s pretty special.”