COLRAIN – While sitting on his porch one Tuesday in June, Colrain resident Herman Drost noticed something unusual as he looked out over the Green River.
Something round and black was floating downstream, bobbing in the water. It was a tire, he discovered, as another followed suit.
Through talking to a neighbor, Drost found the source, a pile of tires that had been dumped off the side of North Green River Road shortly after it turns to dirt. Tires were cascading down the hillside and onto the river bank.
Compelled to take action, several local residents banded together to cleanup the area Saturday morning. Using a cable and pickup truck, the men, women and teenagers hauled up several tires at a time, ranging from small wheelbarrow tires, to ATV and dirt bike tires, to full-sized vehicle tires. Some of the approximately 80 tires were still on their metal rims.
Colrain resident Paul Hurtig, who served as the primary organizer, noticed the tires shooting downstream and considered the safety of those swimming in the river, as well as those to whom the river provides drinking water.
“My kids swim in the hole,” he said. “You can imagine a kid or a fly fisherman having a tire hit them.”
To prevent more tires from drifting away, Hurtig quickly picked a date for a cleanup and spread the word. Neighbors, like Gina Onushco and her children Althea Tierney, 16, and Finn Tierney, 20, showed up.
“We live here and we all love this river,” Onushco said. “We’re all invested in keeping it clean and pristine.”
Though now residents of Greenfield, Herman Drost’s son Izzy and 14-year-old grandson Hunter traveled to Colrain to clean up Izzy’s “home turf.”
“I don’t like dirtbags trashing the woods and the river,” Izzy Drost said simply. “I’m tired of people coming up here and throwing their stuff over the banks.”
The Drosts hope to preserve areas like those found on North Green River Road, “where you can come and enjoy nature,” Izzy Drost said.
“You have the land out here, you have the river,” Hunter Drost added. “People aren’t grateful for it.”
After volunteers stacked the tires along the roadside, two employees of Greenfield’s Tire Warehouse picked them up to dispose of them, reportedly at no cost.
“Lennie Weeks is doing a great thing for us,” Colrain Police Chief Chris Lannon said of Tire Warehouse’s owner. “Helping the community is big.”
Weeks wrote in a statement how he felt sick when he learned about the tire dumping, explaining there are many ways to dispose of tires, such as via farmers who use them for covering silage or through tire shops.
“Throwing them in our river, especially a river that provides drinking water for us, is no solution,” Weeks wrote. “My heart goes out to the people that have to see this ugly mess, and I feel compelled to do something.”
Being such a remote area, Onushco said the road has been an easy target for people looking to dump unwanted items. Lannon agreed, remembering large items like couches, televisions and mattresses, as well as miscellaneous trash left behind from picnics.
“It ruins the beaches, plus it brings out wildlife,” he said.
Lannon said his department has stepped up its patrols along the Green River and encourages residents to be on the lookout for people dumping trash. As for the case of the 80 or so tires, he said the department is investigating and already has two suspects.
Hurtig hopes Saturday won’t be the end of Green River cleanup efforts in his neck of the woods.
“Hopefully we can do more with this section of the Green River in Leyden and Colrain, starting with the September cleanup,” he said, referring to the Connecticut River Watershed Council’s annual Source to Sea Cleanup.
Hurtig encourages residents who spot tires along the river or who are interested in volunteering with cleanup to contact him by phone at 413-337-5778.
Reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
413-772-0261 ext. 257