On a new episode of Tori's Trails, The Now Bakersfield’s Tori Cooper joined a number of Kern County organizations on the Kern River to show the lengths that conservationist are going to in order to keep the river safe, fun and clean just for you and your family.
Several times a year people celebrate along the Kern River but there's also another group of people like White Water Voyage owner Chris Brown cleaning up what's left behind each year. "The lower Kern just gets a lot of use especially after a big weekend like this, we try to go through and pick up all of the extra trash and try to get it back to as pristine as we can,” Brown said.
Some of that trash is not as easy to get to as you would think, so as a way to encourage more volunteers and to spread education surrounding conservation Brown along with the Kern River Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service, Kern River Outfitters and the Kern River Brewery Company team up regularly for a free clean up raft ride.
Along the way Tori and volunteers were guided by professionals like Brown who instructed them how to paddle, while making various stops in areas that had trash and graffiti. Volunteers and Tori lugged away as much trash as possible even the stuff most people don't want to touch.
Over the course of the route 3,600 pounds of trash were collected. Guide professional also shared helpful safety tips with volunteers, “The one key tip is to always where a life jacket when your on the river, also make sure you check and see what the water levels are like when you are out there,” Brown said.
Brown just hopes that by sharing the river in a fun way it will encourages more people to preserve it, “We just want to make sure that the river actually gets picked up and all of the trash disappears I mean that’s the main objective,” Brown said.
Brown also wanted to remind visitors to pack it in and pack it out and to practice leave no trace. If you would like to sign up for one of the free clean up raft efforts head to Kernriverconservancy.org.
