Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper hosts WNY-wide 'Spring Sweep' for waterways

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper is once again leading the “Spring Sweep,” the largest single-day cleanup across Western New York, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 20. The event is also part of the fourth annual Great Lakes Cleanup, a program developed and led by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper that brings nearly 20 partner organizations across the Great Lakes basin together to clean up along the shores of the Great Lakes.

As Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper celebrates its 35th anniversary, it continues managing the “Spring Sweep.” More than 1,500 volunteers will sweep up and clean up across 35 sites around the watershed.

Organizers said, “The Western New York effort is expected to again make a significant impact by removing 15-20 tons of trash from our shorelines and streets before the litter can contaminate our waterways. The regional Great Lakes Cleanup, led by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, will be just as impactful as volunteers at partner organizations clean up across 9,000 acres across all Great Lakes shorelines.”

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper Executive Director Jill Jedlicka said, “New York is a Great Lakes state, and protection of our globally significant resources often falls on the shoulders of frontline communities and organizations like ours. Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper is honored to lead this effort, and we are grateful for our dedicated citizen volunteers, our local mission partners, and our neighboring Great Lakes organizations’ support for this multi-state, multi-lake collaborative effort. We are thrilled to be able to work with other environmental groups and our fellow Waterkeeper organizations around the Great Lakes, who are some of the most effective water advocates in the world. Our collective action is intended to benefit the health and future of the millions of people and species that call the Great Lakes Basin their home, and we are thrilled to once again mobilize thousands of citizen volunteers in these cleanup efforts.”

A press release stated, “Collecting data on the trash picked up has become an invaluable tool for Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s advocacy work for water protections on local, state, regional and federal levels. Volunteers are asked to record trash they remove at cleanup sites through the Clean Swell app. This information is aggregated and used by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper and partner organizations to push for stronger water protections.”

For more information on the “Spring Sweep,” visit www.bnwaterkeeper.org/cleanup. Registration is still open for Saturday, with several spots still available at the Mongovan Park/South Side Elementary site, as well as at other sites. For more information on the Great Lakes Basin-wide cleanup events, visit www.greatlakescleanup.org.

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper is a community-based nonprofit organization that protects and restores waters and surrounding ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations. Visit www.bnwaterkeeper.org/cleanup.