(Casper, Wyo.) – The 9th Annual Platte River Revival kicked off this morning with six hundred plus registered volunteers for the days work.
With many more lined up to register this morning at Crossroads Park, groups split up to cover ten miles of our Platte River.
City of Casper Marketing Director Anna Rosburg reported that during last year’s event:
- 132,000 Russian Olive debris and litter were removed from the river.
- Crews wire wrapped 950 trees and removed 932 Russian Olive trees.
“This is one of the largest National Public Lands Days in the country, ” reported Rosburg.
With roughly twenty-five sections of the river to cover today, kids, elders and everyone chipped in today to improve our Platte River.
Boats hit the water to clean up trash in the river, and many other groups patrolled along the river cleaning up trash.
A group of fifth grade students from Southridge Elementary came together to build some community service hours for a school project.
Fifth grade teacher, Michelle Fitton rallied her troops and commented, “The students are excited and ready to get to work. They are working towards ten hours of community service so this is a great start for them, and a great day to get out and help out.”
A few of the students chimed in and reported,”It is fun to explore the river and to help out the environment, ” said ten year old Lily Byrd.
Other students, Hailey Willis, Celby Rino, Mackenzie Bradach, and Abby Robberson echoed Byrd’s comments as they giggled.
Registration Coordinator of the event, Ginger Olsen told us, “There is basically something for everyone to do out her today. Age and ability is not a factor, we appreciate all of the support and the work that all you the volunteers are doing.”
One of the biggest projects taking place today is the re-seed project of the North Casper Park. The BLM, City of Casper and Natrona County Weed and Pest stepped in earlier this week for some pre-work and today crews spread native grass seed, specifically selected by the BLM for the area, to mitigate the cheat grass growth in the area.
Once the native grasses are in place, it will help to reduce the return of cheat grass, reported a WGFD volunteer at the event.
Rosburg continued to report that the whole River Restoration Project is considered to be one of the top ten river restoration projects in North America.
See crews spreading grass seeds below and more photos of the event: