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Date: 9/2/2020
RUSSELL – Volunteers from Make MA Fishing Spots Great Again met on Saturday morning Aug 29 at the Jacob’s Ladder pull off in Russell to spend a few hours cleaning up the Westfield River. The goal of the non profit organization is to clean all waterways and fishing spots from the Berkshires to the beaches.
Brett Richards of Ware, the organization’s president, said they decided to come to the Westfield River because they saw a lot of posts on Facebook recently about the trash that has been collecting this summer, and were concerned about fishermen losing access to the river along with everyone else.
A new sign posted by the Russell Police Department at Jacob’s Ladder, a popular fishing spot, lists a $200 to $1,000 fine for littering, permits live parking only and states that unattended vehicles will be towed after 30 minutes.
Westfield Flood Control Commissioner Albert Giguere said the city of Westfield was involved in the cleanup. Conservation Commissioner Meredith Borenstein supplied buckets and bags, and Highway Superintendent Casey Berube placed two dumpsters across from the Circle K station. Giguere said the city wasn’t able to host its annual Earth Day cleanup this year, and wanted to support this effort.
In less than an hour, the 35 volunteers who had gathered filled up ten garbage bags with trash from the river bank and the river itself, including tile and sheetrock, and brought them to the dumpsters. They then dispersed to other fishing spots along the river downstream towards Westfield to continue the cleanup, despite rainy conditions.
Richards said the group was made up mostly of outdoorsmen and women. “The rain doesn’t bother us,” he said.