Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper's 'Spring Sweep' benefits area waterways

Group led partner coalitions across Great Lakes Basin to protect world’s largest fresh water system

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper Press Release & Photos

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper once again led the ”Spring Sweep,” the largest single-day cleanup across Western New York, on Saturday, April 26. The event was also part of the fifth annual Great Lakes Cleanup, a program developed and led by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper that brings nearly 20 partner organizations across the Great Lakes basin together to clean up along the shores of the Great Lakes. 

Nearly 1,500 community volunteers helped Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper staff and volunteer ambassadors clean up litter and other debris at 35 sites around our watershed. The volunteers in Western New York once again made a significant impact by removing between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds of trash from our shorelines and streets to prevent litter from contaminating our waterways. At the same time, the regional Great Lakes Cleanup, also coordinated by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, is just as impactful in other communities, as volunteers at partner organizations clean up across 9,000 acres on the shorelines of the other Great Lakes. 

“New York is a Great Lakes state, and protection of our globally significant resources often falls on the shoulders of frontline communities and organizations like ours,” Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper Executive Director Jill Jedlicka said. “For over three decades, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper has been committed to lead this regional effort, and we are grateful for the dedicated community volunteers and our local mission partners for this multistate, multilake collaborative. We are thrilled to be able to work with other environmental groups, our neighboring Great Lakes organizations, and our fellow Waterkeeper organizations around the Great Lakes. Our collective action is intended to benefit the health and future of the millions of people and species that call the Great Lakes Basin their home, and we are thrilled to have once again mobilized thousands of citizen volunteers in these cleanup efforts.”

Collecting data on the trash picked up has become an invaluable tool for Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s advocacy work for water protections on local, state, regional and federal levels. Volunteers are asked to record the types and amount of trash they remove at cleanup sites through the Ocean Conservancy’s “Clean Swell” app. This information is aggregated in the TIDES database and is used by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper and partner organizations to push for stronger water protections and inform research. 

Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper is a community-based nonprofit organization that protects and restores our waters and surrounding ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations. For over 35 years, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper has been the guardian of Western New York's fresh water, protecting clean water, restoring the health of ecosystems, connecting people to the water, and inspiring sustainable economic growth and community engagement. For more information about the ”Spring Sweep” and solo sweeps year-round, visit www.bnwaterkeeper.org/cleanup.