Fifteen shopping carts were discovered performing a late-season migration at the footbridge of the Springfield Shopping Plaza, and were fished out by the Black River Action Team on Saturday, December 9th.  Initiated by Doug Hebert of Hinsdale, NH, the effort was coordinated by BRAT Director Kelly Stettner.  Hebert, who works at Vermont Machine Tool in Springfield, was getting sick of seeing the junk in the water on his daily walks across the footbridge to the Plaza.  After warming up with coffee and breakfast sandwiches donated by the local McDonald's, the team launched into action.  Doug and his wife Mary joined Kelly, Jesse Cox, Sue Poirier and Joe James on the footbridge to snag carts with home-made grappling hooks.  Later in the morning, Sue slid her kayak over a sheet of ice at water's edge to scout for more carts in deeper water. 

 

Most carts were only a few months old, since the BRAT's annual RiverSweep event in late August cleaned out most of them.  A few were heavily sedimented into the riverbed or buried under snags of logs and large branches.  Joe hitched the ropes from the grappling hooks to the winch on his trailer and pulled them out to haul them away.  His company, The Metal Man, salvages and recycles scrap metal in the Brattleboro, Vermont area, but he made the special trip up just for this event.

 

In addition to the carts, three bags of trash were collected by some young folks who were on hand to help: Alex James, Caleb McElaney and Moira Stettner.  They even discovered a small, portable television set!  It is not known whether the television was attemtping to join the cart migration.

 

After the final cart was loaded onto Joe's trailer around noon, Friendly's Restaurant in the Plaza donated large cups of hot cocoa to warm the intrepid volunteers after a cold morning's work.  The BRAT's annual RiverSweep cleanup event will occur in late August of 2007, when all manner of trash will be collected from the bed and banks of the Black River throughout the watershed.  Other BRAT projects are in the works.  The group's focus is on communities pulling together to roll up their sleeves and take an active role in keeping the river healthy and enjoying this lovely natural resource.

 

Check out the Black River Action Team at www.blackriveractionteam.org; to get hold of The Metal Man, please call 603-866-0598 for Joe James.

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