Johnson Creek Watershed Council convened 130 volunteers on Saturday, August 22 for our 20th Johnson Creek Clean-up! Stretching from 92nd & Flavel all the way to the confluence site at the Willamette River, we cleaned approximately 6.5 miles of Johnson Creek.
As JCWC’s newest member, I joined the planning process a little bewildered, but I was consistently reminded of the community’s love for this treasured creek. A huge thank you to volunteer planning committee members Melanie Klym, Nick Cook, Nate Whirty, and fellow JCWC staff member Sara Volk for leading the way and being guides to me in this process. The knowledge and love you’ve shared for the watershed was so impactful to me, and this event couldn’t have been the success it was without you.
Together, we collected 270 bags of trash, removed large items like 28 tires, 5 shopping carts and encountered wildlife like great blue herons, green herons, kingfishers, crayfish, and even a fox!
After the clean-up, volunteers made their way to Johnson Creek Park to build community and share a meal together. Every year, we hold an award ceremony for the volunteer who pulled the best or strangest thing to come out of the creek – the winner gets the Golden Trash Can award! Contenders for this year’s award included a cache of cassette tapes, a 1st Edition (and very poor condition) copy of Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus, several stuffed animals, and an adult-sized onesie, but the winner based on audience applause was a tiki statue, found by Scott Kelly.
We are so thankful to the many groups and organizations that partnered and helped make this event happen: Ground Score Association for helping outreach to our houseless neighbors in the watershed so that they could help clean the creek, to SOLVE for giving us supplies like trash bags and sharps containers, Junk It Junk Removal for being a long time partner in removing tons of trash over the years, Salvador Molly’s for the delicious tamales, and Rebel Cricket Screen Prints for printing our beautiful t-shirts, designed by local artist Emily Fehrenbach.
It is with great pleasure that JCWC announced the renaming of the clean-up to Walt Mintkeski Johnson Creek Clean-up. The decision to rename the annual event reflects Walt Mintkeski’s profound impact on the health of Johnson Creek and his legacy as a co-founder of the watershed council and leader of the first creek cleanup in the 1990s. His commitment to a healthy Johnson Creek persisted and he volunteered as a team captain for many years.
A huge thank you to this year’s sponsors and partners. We could not do this important work with you! Thank you Clackamas Water Environment Services, Metro Regional Refresh Fund, Mintkeski Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, Portland Parks and Recreation, North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District, City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services, Ground Score Association, SOLVE, East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, Rebel Cricket, and Junk It Portland.