cigarette Litter prevention program

The Little River Watershed Association has been awarded a $5000 grant from Keep America Beautiful to help prevent cigarette litter in our watershed. With these funds, we will purchase bins to place at strategic locations in the Little River Watershed, to help prevent the litter from polluting the ground, but also to prevent it from ending up in the river! Cigarette butts are the number one most frequently littered item, and are toxic to the environment. You can do your part by not throwing your waste out the window, or contacting us for a Ciagrette Litter Cleanup in a designated area!

Once these cigarette butts are collected, they are then sent in to Terracycle where the cigarette waste is cleaned and separated by material type. The materials are recycled into raw formats that manufacturers use to make new products. The ash and tobacco are separated out and composted in a specialized process. You can find out more about the process here: Terracycle Cigarette Recycling Program

Thanks so much to Keep America Beautiful for helping us to keep our watershed clean and cigarette waste free!

stream cleanups

At Little River Watershed, we value keeping our water systems healthy and as clean as possible. That is why it is important to us to practice diligence with trash removal and stream quality monitoring of the Little River. In addition, we do our best to keep an eye out for any invasive species that might be overtaking the area and causing any harm to the native inhabitants of the river and its banks. We aim to do this by having annual cleanups, water quality assessments and invasive removal days.

So why is this important? Protecting our water protects everything that inhabits this system, but also it affects you and me. There is a common denominator and it is that we all need water to survive, and without clean water, we wouldn't be healthy or happy individuals.

Keep America Beautiful, Great American Cleanup

The Little River Watershed Association teamed up with DOW Chemical on May 19th to take part in Keep America Beautiful's, Great American Cleanup. With the help of volunteers from DOW, the community and some Little River board members, we helped clean up 39 bags of trash from Brown's Creek, a tributary of the Little River and Bicentennial Park. Some of the items we removed from the creek included over 5 tires, a dresser, and a scooter!

We are thankful for community partners and the ability to help give back to keep our waters clean! If there are any areas that you want to help clean up, let us know at littleriverwater@gmail.com to organize a cleanup!

Invasive Plant removals

We partner with Keep Blount Beautiful, Tuckaleechee Garden Club, and Blount County Soil Conservation District to help cleanup the Townsend Riverwalk and Arboretum. During invasive removal days, we remove a variety of invasive plant species including privet, honeysuckle, multiflora rose and mimosa. It is critical to help remove these invasive plants so that we can allow native plants to thrive in their natural habitat. We are grateful for the opportunity to help give back and help cleanup this special place by the Little River!

Adopt-a-Stream

What is the Adopt-a-Stream Program?

The Blount County Adopt-a-Stream program aims to bring awareness and preservation efforts to the different waterways in Blount County. We are fortunate to have a variety of creeks, a river and different water systems in Blount County and we need community help to continue to keep them monitored, clean and litter free. These are resources we cherish and also depend on, and it is a prudent that we protect them so as to keep these resources available now and for future generations.

The Adopt-A-Stream program is a citizen-based monitoring and litter-prevention program intended to protect the health and serenity of our local waterways, and to educate our communities on the environmental concerns that impact them every day on a personal level. The mission of the Adopt-A-Stream Program is to educate and inspire local residents to care for the waterways in their community by engaging them in hands-on environmental action through stream clean-ups.

The Little River Watershed Association, in partnership with Blount County encourages and can help provide help for cleanup efforts or anyone that wants to Adopt a Section of the Little River. For more information about what it takes to adopt a section of a stream, you can check out the application here: Blount County Adopt-a-Stream