The purpose of the Snowrider Project's Annual Salmon Headwaters Cleanup on Mt. Hood is threefold: to give the mountain a needed scrubbing, to remind people why they should want clean water, air and green land, and to empower them to make change.
The first Salmon Cleanup was held three Septembers ago with partners Timberline Lodge, The US Forest Service, Portland Mountain Rescue and the Sandy River Basin Watershed Council. With no promotion 50 volunteers showed up and removed two commercial construction dumpsters worth of trash from the Salmon River Headwaters. Two tons of trash were removed the following 2 years and this last Saturday, September 13, an estimated 1.5 tons of micro trash, metal and PVC were removed.
The Salmon River Headwaters, which drains a portion of southwestern Mt. Hood, is located between Timberline Lodge and Mt. Hood Meadows. The entire Salmon River is a protected National Wild and Scenic River, the only such river in the contiguous 48 states. The river is likely named for its abundant anadromous fish: Steelhead, Cutthroat trout, Chinook salmon, and Coho salmon.