Giving Something Back

As I began to research for this trip one thing that i discovered that was a shock to me was that most all the water i would paddle through was not safe to drink even after filtering or treating. We are talking a lot of water, around 90,000 gallons a minute in Minneapolis and over 600,000 cubic feet per second at New Orleans and almost every drop is polluted with mercury, bacteria, PCB's and nutrients. While the river water can and does get cleaned to provide drinking water to over 18 million people a day, it is sad that so many of our nations resources are used to for such a purpose. The problem rests in the fact that the river drains over 40% of the United States, that equals over 1.8 million square miles. Most of the pollution does not come from the towns along the river but cities and small towns located hundreds of miles away. I had already decided I would pick up all the litter I could during my trip but I wanted to do more to help the Mighty Mississippi.  I decided the best way to help the river was to find a non profit the works to clean and improve a river that drains into the Mississippi. I knew the Wolf River that flows through Memphis Tennessee was one such river. I was born in Memphis and my father still lives in the area. For a time he lived very near the river outside Memphis and I had the chance to fish the river and explore a boardwalk that runs through a wetland created by the river. My father had told me about the Wolf River Conservancy a non profit that has worked to clean up the river, build a green belt along its course and educate the public. With some help I was able to establish a relationship with the Wolf River Conservancy and hope that through this blog, Face Book and your help I can raise money help give back to this river that is giving so much to me. I ask you please take a moment to follow the link below and read about some of the wonderful things the Wolf River Conservancy is doing to help the Wolf River and in turn the Mississippi River. If you like what you read please take a moment to give back to a river that provides so much to our country.
Thanks Matt
https://wolfriver.org/matthew-briggs-source-to-sea-litter-free