Asheville GreenWorks marks 50 years with Clean Streams Day cleanup

Asheville GreenWorks will mark 50 years of river cleanups with Clean Streams Day on Saturday, June 13, a milestone that lands in a region still sorting through debris, erosion and flood recovery. Eric Bradford said the cleanup is the kickoff to the summer cleanup season, but the anniversary also shows how long Buncombe County has leaned on volunteer stewardship to keep waterways usable and visible.

GreenWorks says it was founded in 1973 in direct response to the area’s litter problem, and Clean Streams Day has remained one of the group’s core efforts ever since. The organization says Buncombe County residents and visitors remove tens of thousands of pounds of litter each year from rivers, streams and roads, a figure that reflects both the scale of the problem and the persistence of the people who keep showing up.

That work has evolved alongside the watershed itself. GreenWorks says it has pioneered Trash Trout devices that capture litter and plastics in waterways all day, every day, adding a mechanical layer to the volunteer labor that has defined the group for decades. Its broader mission now centers on building a climate-resilient future and helping the community prepare for heat, drought, flooding and polluted waterways, a focus that has only sharpened after Helene left more debris in the French Broad River system.

The anniversary also connects this year’s cleanup to a deeper local environmental history. A GreenWorks event listing says Clean Streams Day has been used to honor Wilma Dykeman, the Asheville author and environmental advocate whose legacy is tied to the French Broad watershed. GreenWorks says many of its early programs are still active today, including Adopt-a-Street, NC Big Sweep River Cleanup, Arbor Day Celebration, Earth Day, Tree City USA and the Great Asheville-Buncombe Cleanup.

For Asheville and Buncombe County, the 50th Clean Streams Day is not just a celebration of longevity. It is a reminder that the same rivers that support recreation, tourism and quality of life also demand constant attention. Months after Helene, volunteers were still hauling debris from the French Broad, a sign that the cleanup work remains as immediate as it was when GreenWorks began half a century ago.