BETHEL — As part of National River Cleanup, students from the Experiential Learning Team at Oxford Hills Middle School in Paris will help clean up a section of the Androscoggin River next week.

Magic Falls Rafting Co. of West Forks will provide rafts and garbage scows, Wende Gray, alliance spokeswoman, said Monday in Bethel.

The youths, ages 12-15, will join members of the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance and community volunteers on Tuesday, May 22, in floating down the river at 9 a.m. from Newt’s Landing in West Bethel to Davis Park in Bethel.

“Community members are welcome to help clean up this and other stretches of the river,” Gray said.

The town of Bethel will then take the collected river trash from Davis Park and deliver it to the town’s solid waste facility.

Rivers and watersheds have been used as dumps for old appliances, shopping carts and other refuse.

Litter, such as foam cups, plastic bottles and food wrappers float into waterways, build up along the shoreline and stay there for years, she said.

With landfill space at a premium, recycling efforts stymied by a lack of plant capacity and toxic waste expensive to control, a grassroots effort can help maintain a constituency for preserving and protecting waterways, she said.

In 2011, 2 million pounds of trash and debris were collected and 6,000 miles of rivers and streams cleaned across the nation.

“In years past, the Upper Andro yielded over a ton of debris, including bed springs, tires and tire rims, a boat motor and a 1950s record player,” Gray said.

The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance sponsors the local cleanup.

“There’s been a long-standing effort to improve the Androscoggin’s water quality and fishery,” Bruce Pierce, cleanup coordinator and alliance director, said Monday.

“Now we need to improve the shoreland zone along this wonderful river,” he said.

To learn more about National River Cleanup, visit www.nationalrivercleanup.org. To learn more about the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance or the project, visit upperandro.com/magazine/ or contact Gray at [email protected].

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