Keeping It Clean

Community Cleanup on Fontana Reservoir

Full of sparkling water in the summer, drawn down to wait for rains in winter – Tennessee Valley Authority reservoirs serve people in many ways.

Reservoirs offer boating, fishing, swimming and camping on their shores. They are water-banks from which managers release flow downstream during droughts. And they become lifesaving basins that hold back floods in extreme weather events.

But one thing they shouldn’t be? Full of trash.

That’s why for years, TVA has offered grants to local groups who keep reservoirs across the Valley region clean.

A few days before Hurricane Helene brought historic amounts of rain to the region, volunteers from the Environmental Action Community of WNC, from Waynesville, North Carolina, and Shining Rock Classical Academy, from Haywood County, North Carolina, cleared the dry coves and shores of Fontana Reservoir.

Armed with grabbers, bags and gloves, they cleared tons of trash from the wide exposed shores.

Straws and cans.

Oil bottles, tires and propane tanks.

Patio furniture, soggy mattresses, a 40-inch television, high-heeled shoes and Styrofoam.

And plastic. Lots and lots of plastic.

“I'm excited to help out the local community,” student Savannah Sellers said. “It's something good for the environment and it's good opportunity to help others.”

Austin Jenkins, TVA Natural Resources watershed representative, agreed. He’s part of TVA’s Environment and Sustainability group, which awarded this Returning Campsites to the Wild grant – one of many Reservoir and Community Cleanup grants – to the Environmental Action Community.

“When groups like this get together, it's a big help for us,” Jenkins said. “Not only are we (at TVA) stewards of the land, but everybody else is as well.”

Students Alyssa Jackson and Cece Postoak, from Shining Rock Classical Academy in Haywood County, North Carolina, find litter large and small as they search the shores of Fontana Reservoir.

‘You Saw a Lot of Change’

Cleanup volunteers stepped off boats and climbed dry soil layers stacked like pancakes to reach tufts of vegetation at the top – where the water laps in the summertime.

These islands stand tall above the water because each fall, TVA draws down reservoir levels in anticipation of seasonal rains.

This drawdown season offers the perfect cleanup time, when lightweight litter and beached branches wait in accessible piles.

Volunteers fanned out into shady, vacant campsites first. That's where Environmental Action Community longtime volunteer Jamie Shackelford dug a posthole for a new "Pack It In, Pack it Out" sign the U.S. Forest Service had provided.

“I always had a dream of cleaning up Fontana, because I would camp here and ... I'd have to go clean up the campsites,” she said.

Shackelford has seen the impact that TVA-, U.S. Forest Service- and National Park Service-supported cleanups have had over time.

“I'll always remember this kid who said, ‘Wow, I camp out here with my Papaw a lot. I will never let him throw a can out here again.’ And so you saw a lot of change,” Shackelford said. “We thoroughly appreciate TVA. It's been a huge plus.”

Tucked in beached tree debris, volunteers find foam, chairs, bags, bottles, toys, tennis balls and much more washed ashore.

Piles of Toothpicks

To make reservoir cleanups possible, TVA’s grant funded all the essentials.

That included bags, gloves and grabbers to safely pick up litter, pontoon boat rental and gas to transport volunteers, the TVA boat (and captain) to ferry trash to shore, a huge dumpster from Swain County Solid Waste to contain litter, and then lunch for all at the end.

Jenkins knows the importance of early exposure and service to these lands. Jenkins – “Born on the water” – grew up in western North Carolina and learned how to swim and boat at Fontana Reservoir with the help of his grandparents.

Now, he steered the boat into the narrow coves where tree trunks lay strewn in piles like toothpicks.

“For (the students) to be able to get outdoors and learn what we do, as well as what nature has to offer, I think it's super important,” Jenkins said.

At the log-strewn site, volunteers picked their way over and around the debris and had piled full bags for boat pickup.

Students drained waterlogged Styrofoam chunks from discarded coolers and broken boat docks. They gingerly threw bottles and cans and dog toys and dolls, pump shoes and flip flops and ruined toys into the trash.

The students filled bag after bag, hauling it to Jenkins’ waiting boat down the steep shore.

“I'm shocked by what we found, just because I'm surprised humans could do this to our nature,” Sellers said. “But I guess I'm also just not surprised because they're humans. And ... that's a whole chair over there.”

She swung a leg over the first of dozens of tree trunks on the path to reach the broken plastic furniture.

Joseph Reynolds, one of many student volunteers cleaning up with bags, grabbers and gloves funded by TVA.

‘These Lands Belong to All of Us’

As Jenkins brought loads of trash to the shore, students and Environmental Action Community members formed a chain, handing off boards, bags, the TV, chairs and heavy Styrofoam chunks to a team that packed it into a pickup truck to drive to the on-site dumpster.

Cleaning the litter helped the reservoir.

And seeing the sheer amount of litter helped students understand their role in preventing these problems in their community.

Sellers, who at the beginning said that she “loved microbiology and all the small organisms that are really important and sensitive,” had some advice.

“If you have trash, bring your trash bag. That’s what my family does, so we can keep all our trash away. ‘Cause this is just sad.”

And that’s exactly what the organizers of this event hoped students would learn.

“Students have now seen the seven Leave No Trace principles in action,” Kathy Odvody, Environmental Action Community Member and event organizer, said.

“I think the actions of trying to be environmentally conscious can start with all of us, but particularly the young,” said Kristen Hammett, Environmental Action Community assistant organizer. “I think these lands belong to all of us and in that respect, we're all responsible for them.”

Odvody agreed.

“(This day is about) being able to teach kids what it means to take care of the environment so that they become the leaders of tomorrow,” Odvody said.

The day’s action fits into the students’ education, too – that’s why teachers at Shining Rock Academy have brought students back to volunteer year after year.

“We talk a lot about energy resources and being good stewards of the environment,” teacher Heather Clayton said. “It ties in with our core values.”

And it’s a core value of the people in western North Carolina, too – taking care of the community and taking pride in their place.

“When you keep something clean, it's amazing how other people keep it clean,” Shackelford said. “If (people) don't see trash, they feel responsible for keeping it that way. It's definitely a project worth doing.”

Photo Gallery

Kristen Hammett, Environmental Action Community assistant organizer, displays the seven Leave No Trace guidelines to students before the cleanup.

Student Evie Teague cleans litter as boaters and a beaver paddle behind.

Austin Jenkins, TVA Natural Resources watershed representative, adds a waterlogged TV to the load of litter he motors to shore in the TVA boat.

Alyssa Jackson fills bags with piles of washed-up trash.

Kathy Odvody, Environmental Action Community Member and event organizer, instructs students as volunteer boat pilots Phyllis Woollen and Jana Plemmons look on prior to the cleanup.

Volunteers pilot pontoon boats and helped students ashore.

PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE: Students scour the shoreline of drawn-down Fontana Reservoir for litter.