Kevin Rauch/For The Express
Fifty people showed up to volunteer in the Clinton County CleanScapes clean up along Young Women’s Creek in North Bend on Saturday morning. Joining Chapman Township and CCC were the Bald Eagle Wilderness Boys Camp and students from Lock Haven University.

By Kevin Rauch

For The Express

NORTH BEND — The Clinton County Cleanscapes crew took to the creek-side of Young Woman’s Creek in North Bend Saturday morning as fifty volunteers spent several hours picking up trash and debris, some of which had been there for decades.

It was the 110th clean-up spearheaded by Cleanscapes since their inception in 1999 and there was little doubt that Saturday’s undertaking was not one of the easier ones that group of volunteer accepted.

The group of volunteers from Cleanscapes, the Bald Eagle Wilderness Boys Camp, Lock Haven University, Chapman Township employees and a few local residents targeted the area of Young Women’s Creek Road between North Bend and Little Italy. What they encountered was a steep, often 90 degree bank riddled with garbage and deer carcasses.

As if traversing the terrain would not have been difficult enough on a normal day, last week’s hard rain made the ground loose and soft.

The top of the bank would have left little room for the faint of heart to proceed. Cat litter and ashes have been dumped for years at several pull offs along the creek. With leaves over top of the illegal dumping, those cleaning up the trash would often step into the conglomerate of nastiness and be boot high in slime.

Fortunately for the residents of Chapman Township and anyone that visits Young Women’s Creek which will be a high volume of anglers taking to the streams this upcoming weekend participating in the first day of fishing season, the workers carried on.

The groups built what they had called “bucket brigades”. Some would be on the hill side literally walking on both hands and feet, picking up what often seemed to be an endless supply of garbage.

Old televisions, lawn mowers, metal cupboards and just about any other household ware that you can imagine lay on the bank. Still, it was the garbage that often proved to be the messiest and most prominent feature.

As those along the creek and bank would pick up and secure as best they could the debris of litter, they would pass it on up to the brigade. There, twenty people would relay the item up to the top where Chapman trucks waited to accept the load.

The steepness and softness of the bank combined with often heavy items combined to see the volunteers frequently tumblin to the ground.

The trips and falls were often met with laughter and even more of a sense of determination as the end result was a Young Women’s Creek bank that has not looked as good as it does now in decades.

“We’ve had people clean up along the road often through the years, but I don’t think anyone has climbed the hill sides like this group did today” said Chapman Township Supervisor Greg Werts following the clean up. “We’re really thankful for all that they did today, getting a lot of garbage that you couldn’t even see from the road”.

Fellow supervisors Tim Horner and George Machak also expressed gratitude, saying it was amazing what a simple visit of a township meeting led to. The clean up came about when an out of town couple went to a township meeting and suggested that Chapman consider asking CleanScapes for assistance.

The supervisors and their employees treated the group to lunch following the clean up.

Clinton County CleanScapes’ Elisabeth Lynch McCoy said that she hopes that now that the area looks so much better, that those that illegally dump trash will not think twice and that residents will now be observing to possible violators.

“Residents of Chapman Township are victims of illegal dumping, hopefully now they will feel better about the area and look at this as a new start” said Lynch McCoy.

Clinton County CleanScapes will next be at the Rail Trail hillside clean-up on April 22, where the Route 220 overpasses Youngsdale Road.