West Salem resident Josh Marthaller takes to social media to draw awareness to riverbank trash

Willamette Riverkeeper plans a May riverbank cleanup and welcomes volunteers

City of Salem is aware of the trash and exploring how to haul it out

Josh Marthaller passes heaps of trash on the Willamette Slough's eastern banks as he guides his boat south of Salem's Riverfront Park.

A chair. A shopping cart. A bicycle frame. Marthaller, 32, spots what appears to be a laptop.

The debris, strewn along the water's edge, casts reflections in a slough he's been fishing for about a decade.

"This is the worst I've seen it," says Marthaller, who compares the debris on the banks to a landfill.

The trash heap runs a few hundred feet shy of a quarter mile, roughly bounded by Oak Street SE to the north and Mission Street S to the south. Further into the slough, there are several tents along the banks.

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The trash has worsened in recent years, Marthaller says.

His fishing club recently talked about cleaning up the trash, but members figured it was too big a project for them to tackle, he says. It also could be hazardous, as syringes have been found in the area.

So this month, Marthaller decided to photograph the trash and post the pictures on social media, a move he says was aimed at raising awareness.

A growing problem

City of Salem spokesman Kenny Larson says officials are aware of the trash and looking at how to get equipment in to haul it out.

Typically when officials clear out homeless camps, they post notices in advance giving campers warning that a sweep is coming. Officials have swept several Salem camps in recent years. For example, Salem officials cleared a camp beneath the Marion Street Bridge in January.

Meanwhile, Willamette Riverkeeper, an Oregon nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding the Willamette River, is kicking off a riverbank cleanup program in Salem in May.

"We will paddle around the whole area to ID where the worst of the trash exists and prioritize those areas first," says Travis Williams, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper.

Cleanup

Woodward Surf Co., which rents out paddle boards and kayaks in Salem, plans to partner with Willamette Riverkeeper.

Co-owner Tod Woodward says he wants to take out the trash along the slough so people can enjoy going there.

"The river's not really that bad, but it looks horrible" because of trash on the banks, Woodward says.

Williams says Willamette Riverkeeper is open to any companies or groups who can send volunteers, as well as members of the public, and they will set teams up with canoes.

Sometimes trash comes from people using riverbanks as a dumpsite, and other times it's from homelesscamps, he says.

Williams says Willamette Riverkeeper sometimes works with partners to help find places for people to go if trash comes from homeless camps.

The Salem-area program follows similar initiatives up and down the Willamette Valley. Willamette Riverkeeper started a Eugene-area program about three years ago and just started cleanups in Corvallis in the winter.

"We've been able to mobilize a lot of folks who do cleanups on a regular basis," Williams says. "Our staff there, along with volunteers, track the most problematic areas."

They use canoes, rafts, and at times, power boats, depending on the site and who is available to help, he says.

"The commitment of some of the volunteers is just amazing," Williams says.

When the location is clearly a dump site, they tell authorities to help prevent people from continuing to use it for trash, Williams says.

"The success of all of our sites is truly getting a lot of material off of the river banks, and disposed of properly," he says. "We've found that we have really solid partnerships with volunteers, municipalities and other organizations that helps to keep this going."

Marthaller points out that kayakers and fishers use the Willamette Slough.

"It'd be nice for that area in there to look better than it does," he says.

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Jonathan Bach has been the Statesman Journal's City Hall and business reporter since 2016. Subscribe to the Statesman Journal to support his work.

Contact him by email at jbach@statesmanjournal.com, call (503) 399-6714 or follow him on Twitter @jonathanmbach.