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Litter lifters rid riddled river of little Drew Fleming photo Matt Dunlap of Eagle Point joined other volunteers Saturday in picking up trash on the Rogue River. It was part of this year's "Down by the Riverside" cleanup. Annual cleanup finds awareness means that less is left behind By DANI DODGE Eighteen-year-old Matt Dunlap isn't just passionate about the environment. He's downright maniacal. "Damn right. I'm an Oregonian," the intense 18-year-old from Eagle Point said. "The thought of people chucking their trash all the time makes me sick. "They should be put in jail. Fines obviously aren't enough. They should go to jail." Saturday, Dunlap was one of more than 150 volunteers who helped clean up the Rogue River from Cole Rivers Hatchery to the river's Wild and Scenic section near Galice. In this year's "Down by the Riverside" volunteers also scoured the banks of Bear Creek near local parks. The volunteers donned plastic gloves and strapped large bags to their belts, got a safety lecture from a park ranger, and ventured forth. Most worked from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Radio personality Mike Confer from KOOL-FM played music at the picnic tables at TouVelle State Park and handed out sodas to volunteers. He said he thinks the annual event is making a big difference on the river. "We're returning to find one-fourth of the litter we had last year," Confer said. "It's all about awareness." And although trash was lighter all over, the river is still high and there weren't as many volunteers as years past, said volunteer coordinator Jenifer Wilde. She said volunteers found dryers, tires and "a Timex that was still ticking." "The most unusual thing we found was, well, there's a packaging wrapper from Castle Super Stores ... for a personal massage device," she said, laughing. "I don't know what they were doing with that on the river." Faith Cox, 41, got three family members to join her in Saturday's cleanup. They found an old stinky shoe, a torn-up sleeping bag and lots of liquor bottles, as well as miles of fishing line and globs of duct tape trapped in tree roots. "We wanted to give back to the parks we use all the time," Cox said. But for her daughter, 20-year-old Chrissie Cox, and her daughter's fiance, there was a special reason to clean up at TouVelle. "We're getting married here," said the fiance, Chris Chavers, 21. "I want it to look nice." Unlike the rest of the family, Chavers isn't "used to the wilderness." He grew up in Riverside, Calif. And though the three adults were enjoying the day, after about two hours 6-year-old Jonnie was more excited about making balloons out of the plastic gloves than picking up trash. "I'm bored," she said, although she still flashed her gap-toothed smile. Miles away, Dunlap had no trouble continuing to find human imprints on the wild. He ripped rusted auto parts from sandy river banks and waded into the Rogue for Styrofoam coffee cups. When approached by journalists, he was struggling to pull a twisted car hood out of the sand, but his thoughts weren't on his 15 minutes of fame: "Do you have some bolt cutters?" he grunted. "I need some bolt cutters." Both he and his twin brother participated Saturday. But they weren't working side-by-side. After a game of rock, paper, scissors, Matt joined about 14 others working from TouVelle, and his brother started at Cole River Hatchery. "We can cover more area this way," Matt Dunlap explained. It was the first time Dunlap had done the annual river cleanup. He's gone to the coast several times for the beach cleanup, but said he prefers making a difference close to home. And it won't be the last time either. "I'll be down here every year until I die," Dunlap said. "Or at least until people stop throwing trash in the river." As he carried a desk-sized square of rusted tin, a mini-refrigerator-sized piece of wood, as well as his bag full of smaller trash, he yelled back at the Mail Tribune reporter: "If you want to do something good, put in your article in big bold letters STOP LITTERING." So, Matt, there you have it. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA