This October, we kicked off a beautiful fall season with one of our essential volunteer efforts of the year: the Tennessee River Rescue. Now in its 34th year, the Rescue event gives us all an excuse to get out on the water and have fun while making a difference for biodiversity at least once a year.

Microplastic pollution—one of the critical environmental issues in the world today—starts right here in the Tennessee Valley with litter introduced into our streams. Plastics and other harmful pollutants wash into our waterways, break down in the environment and slowly degrade into smaller and smaller pieces. Our trash flows from Lookout and Black Creeks into the Tennessee River, down the Tombigbee waterway into the Alabama and Mobile Rivers into the Gulf of Mexico, and ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean (or, through the more circuitous but original natural route, into the Ohio River, Mississippi River then the Delta and into the Gulf). Most of us have seen the haunting images of bird carcasses filled with plastic pieces. Have you seen the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? All of that comes from somewhere and each piece of litter has the opportunity to wreak havoc on wildlife all along this winding journey. But we can stop it at the source if we can get litter out of the waterways around us before it gets broken down and starts making its way toward the ocean.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our volunteer-driven cleanup effort of Lookout and Black Creek! Thanks to REI and Rock Creek we had plenty of boats to access the water and thank you WaterWays for coordinating this year's event. Support from Chattanooga Downtown Rotary and Tennessee American Water helped make this cleanup effort a reality - thank you!