07/09/22

Lower Salt River Cleanup in Memory of Tangua

Photo courtesy of Salt River Wild Horse Management Group

On Saturday, July 9th, we teamed up with Salt River Wild Horse Management Group to host a Lower Salt River Cleanup in Memory of Tangua, a beautiful & spirited young stallion who perished in May 2022 after ingesting plastic debris. Thank you to everyone at Republic Services for donating the dumpster for this event, we are grateful for your support!

217 volunteers, including 15 youth volunteers, helped us remove 2,180 pounds (1.09 tons) of trash & 3 tires! Thank you to everyone who spent their morning with us honoring the memory of Tangua & taking action to prevent something like this from happening again.

Volunteers started at Pebble Beach Recreation Area & worked over to Blue Point. We had volunteers go to other recreation areas along the river, the Forest Service River Ranger Group was on the river picking up trash, & Justin from NR took a group of volunteers from AZ4Runner Outsiders up to Bulldog Canyon at Usery Pass to pick up a bunch of trash we wanted to get out of that area.⁠

Volunteers removed a lot micro-trash! We asked volunteers to specifically focus on micro trash knowing that no matter how small, every piece of trash removed matters and can help prevent another animal from ingesting plastic debris and suffering. Volunteers said the item they found the most of was bottle tops.

Volunteers also found wrappers, Capri Sun straws & straw wrappers, fishing line, masks, cigarette butts, kids toys & water floats, clothing, a camp chair, shoes & flip flops, zip ties & twist ties, glass & plastic bottles, aluminum cans, styrofoam & plastic cups, pizza boxes, beer can/bottle boxes, cardboard boxes & wrappers from river floats & water toys, broken glass, grocery bags, sunglasses, carpeting/rugs, towels/blankets, & so much more!⁠

Thank you to everyone from Salt River Wild Horse Management Group for teaming up with us for a Lower Salt River Cleanup to honor the memory of Tangua. Volunteer with Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, they are always looking for volunteers to help. Email Srwhmgvolunteers@gmail.com if you would like to go to a volunteer orientation.⁠

In addition to Salt River Wild Horse Management & Republic Services, we would also like to thank the following organizations for their support of this event: AZ 4Runner Outsiders, Arizona Toy Pros, Battle Born Offroad, Davidson’s Inc., Desert Monsters Tours, Icon Vehicle Dynamics, Illuminated Funds Group, Joyride Society, Nitro Gear & Axle, the ON Semiconductor Foundation, Overland Expo Foundation, the Phoenix Suns, REI, Salt River Project, State 48 Overland, Tru Flask, Unisource Energy Services, Victory 4x4, WAYMO, and Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative.

Thank you to everyone at U.S. Forest Service Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District for their support of this event! ⁠

Thank you to Kyle at Discount Tire on Country Club Drive in Mesa for helping us recycle 3 tires.

click a photo to view full size image

Photos from Justin & Nicole Corey

Justin from Natural Restorations & volunteers from AZ4Runner Outsiders, one of our Sponsors, went up to Bulldog Canyon at Usery Pass during the event to pick up a bunch of trash we’ve been wanting to remove from this area. Thank you to everyone who drove up to Bulldog to help!