North Mount Pleasant Magazine 2021-22

north mount pleasant www.Nor thMountPl easant . com | www. Par kWes tNe i ghborhoods . com | www. Br i ckyardHomes . com 26 O n the first Saturday of every February, volunteers make the trip to Francis Marion National Forest to participate in a large- scale cleanup effort. Now in its 14th year, the cleanup first started in 2003 through a partnership between PalmettoPride (South Carolina’s anti-litter and beautification organization), Charleston County and the United States Forest Service. Ongoing illegal dumping concerns and a desire to create a statewide cooperative trash cleanup initiative led to the formation of a jointly planned cleanup event that would target specific areas within Francis Marion National Forest that are most prone to dumping. The very first cleanup event had a mere 35 participants. Five years later, in 2008, the three groups initially involved in the cleanup were joined by Berkeley County, whereupon an official name was created. Since then the cleanup has taken place annually. The Francis Marion National Forest Cleanup aims to recruit as many volunteers as possible in order to have the maximum impact during the forest cleanup through news spots, newspaper articles and social media engagement. Volunteer counts have been as low as 40 individuals in 2008; however, the average is 300 to 350. Surprisingly, the highest turnout was in 2020, when a record-setting 711 volunteers showed up. This year (2021) had 512 volunteers. Participants have hailed from as far away as Charlotte, Wilmington, Brunswick, Savannah and Jacksonville. The South Carolina State Guard typically also recruits around 30 volunteers to help with logistics and focus on cleaning areas near Boggy Head Rifle Range. Regular volunteers include several Jeep Clubs, Blueway Adventures and Edisto River Adventures; the latter two take kayaks and clean along the waterways. In total, 4,417 volunteer participants over 14 years have cleaned a whopping 290.41 tons of trash. During the initial cleanup event, the Forest Service counted over 100 illegal dumpsites spanning Francis Marion National Forest’s 259 acres, and over the years the annual cleanup campaign has The Annual Francis Marion National Forest Cleanup BY FAY BOUDE T Keeping Things Clean and Green I tems co l l ec ted i nc l ude bu i ld i ng mater i a l s , househo l d t rash , i l l ega l l y dumped l arge i tems and debr i s that fe l l of f of veh i c l es onto the road.