Cleaning the River. Saving the Sea...
The Paddle Peak group was out again this week removing more hay bale black plastic wrapping and netting from the river that was washed in during this winters floods. The team managed to clear everything within reach from Mc Donald’s, through Matlock Town and on to Pic Tor leaving Halls Lees Park looking splendid in time for Spring.
Paddle Peak's founder Pete Astles commented - " It’s been really hard work on the river today. There’s still so much to be done to remove the thousands of meters of black plastic bale wrap that went down the river in November’s floods. We’ve barely scratched the surface so far. It’s pretty demoralising the scale of the task we have set ourselves. This is an unseen environmental disaster. The river is a waste highway. Removing this plastic is saving wildlife realtime. If we don’t remove as much as we can, it will soon break down into micro plastics and wash out to sea. We really are cleaning the river and saving the sea here... That makes it all worthwhile. Great effort from the Paddle Peak team today. If we don’t do it, no one will! “
Special thanks to Paddle Peak members From Peak UK Kayaking Co, Acclimbatize Ltd and Ascent Tree Solutions for their hard work and support. Thanks to McDonald's Matlock for help with river access and parking, William Twigg Matlock Ltd for supplying gloves, and Derbyshire Dales District Council for collecting the rubbish!!
The Paddle Peak crew will continue there work over the next few weeks. For more information on the Paddle Peak Community Project checkout this website.