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11 Jan Tread Lightly! Impact Report: Tread Lightly! West Virginia Day 2023

Posted at 03:08h in News by
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Project: Tread Lightly! West Virginia Day
Location: West Virginia

Description: On September 30, 2023, 158 volunteers across West Virginia worked collectively to clean up trash at fifteen different sites across the state.  Together they removed 20,287 lbs. of trash and dumping debris in all corners of the state. 

This was the first annual Tread Lightly! Day West Virginia, created to empower and encourage citizens of West Virginia to commit to take the “Do Your Part” pledge to make a big difference in small places by packing out at least one bag of trash. Each team had a captain hand picked by Jerry Bain of the Country Roads Coalition, the organizer of the event. Each team was less than 10 vehicles, to keep the footprint of the project to a minimal impact to the areas they were improving.

TL! Day WV Totals:
15 Projects
158 Volunteers
518.5 Volunteer Hours
$16,494.18 Volunteer Value
Removed 20,287 lbs. of trash across the state.

Thank you to the partners and volunteer organizations who made this possible:

TL! Day WV: TU-ENDIE-WEI State Park
 12 Volunteers
42 Volunteer Hours
$1,388.96 value
Removed 350 lbs. of trash

“Tu-Endie-Wei State Park is a historical cornerstone in our community. Though it isn’t directly connected to any motorized recreation, it is a common stop for folks adventuring throughout WV! Being the smallest state park, it was a an exciting opportunity for folks in our community to show how much pride we take in it!”  -Gabe Roush, TL! Day Captain for Tu-Endie-Wei State Park

TL! Day WV: North Bend State Park
6 Volunteers
18 Volunteer Hours
$572.40 value
Removed 400 lbs. of trash

“Tread Lightly! Day WV at North Bend State Park was a fun and productive day. Myself and the volunteers were greatful to be able to work with the WV State Park Rangers, Park Staff and DNR Officers to remove trash and debris from the trails and lake, as well as to assist with trail maintenance.

 Working on this project was an honor. Myself and the volunteers, North Bend State Park holds special memories.  We have camped, hiked and fished at the park; from when we were kids to more recently with our own families.” -Mike Bush, TL! Day Captain for North Bend State Park

TL! Day WV: Tygart Lake State Park
21 Volunteers
63 Volunteer Hours
$2,003.40 value
Removed 430 lbs. of trash

“It was truly awesome to see just how well the pieces came together for Tread Lightly Day at Tygart Lake State Park. The weather was perfect, the volunteers eager, and the park staff were very accommodating. Our crew tackled the Dam River Trail which runs from the park lodge up to Grafton Dam. We were able to clean up the shoreline, and help make an impact in our own “backyard”.” -James Wright, TL! Day Captain for Tygart Lake State Park

TL! Day WV: Cacapon State Park
9 Volunteers
31.5 Volunteer Hours
$1,001.70 value
Removed 315 lbs. of trash

“It was a great day for a cleanup at Cacapon State Park. With the aid of energetic high schoolers our group combed the beautiful picnic area and came away with 9 trash bags filled with bottle caps, wrappers, aluminum foil, balloons, napkins and confetti. Our group would like to thank Activities Coordinator Valerie Chaney for her assistance and support with the cleanup.” -Chris DelCheccolo, TL! Day Captain for Cacapon State Park

TL! Day WV: Tomlinson Run State Park
4 Volunteers
12 Volunteer Hours
$382.32 value
Removed 140 lbs. of trash

“While our group at Tomlinson Run was small, we accomplished quite a bit clearing trash from about 2 miles of roadsides and trails. 

Our interaction with park personnel was excellent they provided us with a lot of help moving large items and giving us a tour of the park grounds. 

It was also good meeting new people and making new friends through the experience.” -Aaron Beckert, TL! Day Captain for Tomlinson Run State Park

TL! Day WV: Cedar Creek State Park
7 Volunteers
21 Volunteer Hours
$667.80 value
Removed 420 lbs. of trash

“I can’t say enough about the staff of Cedar Creek State Park and all the Volunteers who came out to help help make what is already a beautiful park even better!  I also want to say thank you to Tread Lightly for leading the Charge on Stewardship across this great country!” -Jon Bain, TL! Day Captain for Cedar Creek State Park

 TL! Day WV: Canaan Valley State Park
8 Volunteers
24 Volunteer Hours
$763.20 value
Removed 210 lbs. of trash 

“The Tread Lightly experience at Canaan Valley State Park was a blast from start to finish. The park staff were accommodating and helpful, the day was beautiful, and watching some of our youngest volunteers pitch in to help was truly inspiring. It felt good to be a part of something so important, and to see the next generation learning to be a part of the solution!” -Joe Holmes, TL! Day Captain for Canaan Valley State Park

TL! Day WV: Bluestone Lake State Park
10 Volunteers
30 Volunteer Hours
$955.80 value
Removed 380 lbs. of trash

“With volunteers from as far away as Richmond, we took the pledge and cleaned up the refuse from recent and past flooding at Bluestone Lake. It was awesome to be able to bring together a group of people who have never met before and work in unison to make our state cleaner. “ -Patrick Justice, TL! Day Captain for Bluestone Lake State Park

TL! Day WV: Twin Falls State Park
21 Volunteers
63 Volunteer Hours
$2,003.40 value
Removed 1,200 lbs. of trash

 “I couldn’t be more appreciative of my group of volunteers and to the amazing staff at Twin Falls State Park. Everyone understood the importance of the day and jumped in with both feet. We joked that we were identifying as Billy Goats for the day. If you have never witnessed the beauty of Twin Falls, you really should.” -Curtis McMillion, TL! Day Captain for Twin Falls State Park

TL! Day WV: Sanderson REAP Site
15 Volunteers
45 Volunteer Hours
$1,431 value
Removed 9840 lbs. of trash

“This particular site was chosen by REAP as a high impact site. This is a popular area for illegal dumping. It’s is a a bit more challenging than trash along the trail, because of its remote location. This allows the opportunity for bulk dumping such as roofing shingles and in this case 2 fiberglass boats. With our volunteers, we were able to collect a large portion of trash. The DEP was to follow up with a front loader for the larger items.” -Chris Shannon, TL! Day Captain for the WVJC Sanderson REAP Site

 TL! Day WV: Bear Wallow Trailhead HMT REAP Site
11 Volunteers
33 Volunteer Hours
$1,049.40 value
Removed 1,720 lbs. of trash

“The work REAP does cleaning up West Virginia is critical to keeping it Wild and Wonderful. Unfortunately, illegal dump sites like this one have been around a long time, but helping this agency do their work fixing the damage was worthwhile, and something Tread Lightly! and the Country Roads Coalition are willing to find ways to help over the long term. This was not only a dump site, but had been used to get rid of cut brush and was still smouldering from a fire that had been lit several days before.” -Jerry Bain, President of the Country Roads Coalition and Tread Lightly! 2023 Ambassador of the Year

TL! Day WV: Metz WV REAP Site
12 Volunteers
36 Volunteer Hours
$1,144.80 value
Removed 2,640 lbs. of trash

“The volunteers from WV Offroad removed everything from tires to a kitchen sink from the REAP site in Metz! Well, technically it was a dishwasher and then an oven. Super proud of everyone involved with the Tread Lightly and BFG clean up day in WV. Make sure to do your part in keeping the mountain state looking like almost heaven!” -Jack Sloan, TL! Day Captain for the Metz-Fairmont REAP Site

TL! Day WV: East Lynn REAP Site
10 Volunteers
35 Volunteer Hours
$1,113 value
Removed 900 lbs. of trash

“I was proud to head up the efforts in East Lynn with the REAP clean up site on Ponderosa Road near East Lynn WV. Ponderosa Road is a beautiful area very densely wooded and shaded. There is a creek that runs up the left side of the road and about 1/2 mile of the creek has fallen victim to dumping. We starter at the bottom where there is a wide pull off area. We were able to do a thorough job cleaning the roadside, pull off area, creek bed, and the adjacent hillside in that area. In just under 3 hours we were able to completely fill a 14′ trailer with trash. It definitely made a huge impact on the area. As green turns to brown and some of the over growth dies back we plan to have another cleanup in the area with more volunteers and move on up the creek bed cleaning on to the top of the hill. Once again thanks for your hard work organizing Tread Lightly! Day and as always for all you do to help the great State of West Virginia.” -Adam Kazee, TL! Day Captain for the East Lynn REAP Site

TL! Day WV: Creston Poker Run
5 Volunteers
30 Volunteer Hours
$954 value
Removed 420 lbs. of trash

“I was grateful for being able to use Creston community building as a TL site during their fall foliage poker run. The whole team of Creston was very helpful and couldn’t have done a better job. I was very pleased to find out that after each poker run they put on they go back through and pick up all the trash and signs the next day. It was a pleasure to be part of such a great movement in the wild and wonderful state of West Virginia” -Zach Adams, TL! Day Captain for the Creston WV Poker Run

TL! Day WV: Chief Logan State Park
7 Volunteers
35 Volunteer Hours
$1,113 value
Removed 922 lbs. of trash

“It was my absolute pleasure to drive down to the first annual Tread Lightly! Day West Virginia with the Quadratec JTe to put in work cleaning up the roadside areas of Chief Logan State Park. While the park was in great condition, occasional dumping activity out of eyesight was in need of a cleanup. All of the volunteers walked along the road picking up things as small as pull tabs from cans and broken glass, all the way up discarded deck material.” -Eric Ammerman, Tread Lightly! Member and Project Manager for the Quadratec JTe Project

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