The South Ukiah Rotary Club presented it's first-ever Environmental Stewardship Award to Rebecca Kress, who for the past 19 years has been the driving force behind annual cleanups of the Russian River.

Kress, who received the award Thursday at the Rotarian's breakfast meeting, made a point of sharing the award with the organization, whose members in some cases have assisted her since the inception of the cleanups in 1991.

After serving in the Army, Kress moved to Ukiah and like most locals, fell in love with the Russian River. Her mission began simply enough as she was floating downstream with a friend and began noticing the piles of trash, tires and other more disturbing evidence of human traffic on the river. She commented to her friend, saying, "Why doesn't someone clean this up?" Her friend responded, "Why don't you?"

Kress stepped up to the plate and the cleanups began - simply at first, and as the years went on, word spread.

Rotarian Charlie Kelly, laughing, described how he, Dick Arneson and Bob Perkowski attended the early cleanups: "Willow trees are a great filter for human compostable materials.'"

Rebecca experimented with the formation of a non-profit organization, but in the long run felt that the structure became too much of an administrative burden, so she now orchestrates private cleanups, which she says, "are so much easier, and I am so much happier."

River cleanups are held

---

 

---

"Someone should send him on a vacation," says Kress. Thornsberry also handles the provision of dumpsters, porta-potties and the disposal of any toxic materials.

Kress stresses that the river cleanup project is a community effort with tremendous support from business and governmental agencies. She thanks Nita Brake-Mills and Carol Petsch from Cal-Trans, Henry Luna and Dwayne Boggs from Solid Waste, Jordon Main, Amy Shanahan and Tony Shaw from Granite Construction.

"These individuals are key to making the event a success," says Kress.

The Rotary Club's Environmental Stewardship Committee is a newly formed group which will be organizing service projects in the future and providing stewardship awards to deserving community members on a regular basis. Member Kumar Plocher remarks that there has been "so much enthusiasm" in the formation of the committee, whose first project was to nominate Rebecca and present her award.

"The committee developed a 10-person list of nominees in 10 minutes," says member Kevin Doble.

The awards recognize individuals who practice environmental stewardship in their daily lives and receive little recognition from the community. A plaque created by students from the Ukiah High woodshop was presented to Kress, along with a planter created by ceramist Jan Hoyman.

When Kress isn't busy planning for the year's cleanups, she teaches children about storm water discharge and how to be a good steward of our water supply, providing public outreach and education for preschoolers, K-12 classrooms and adults.

"This is one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever had," says Kress. "My goal is to teach kids to teach the grownups. I give kids permission to give their parents a warning and then a time-out' if they see them wasting water," laughs Kress.

Kress has reached celebrity status with her young audiences. "Kids come up to me and say, you're the River Lady,'" says Kress. "They come up and hug me - it's so fulfilling."

"The old adage used to be pave it, pipe it, pollute it,'" says Kress. "Today we say, slow it, spread it, sink it,'" referring to how to best manage water resources.

"In Colorado it is now illegal to catch rain water - a free resource," says Kress. "It is my wish that our county will lead by example and devise the best ways to capture this free, essential resource by enacting conservation methods such as rain gardens, rainwater catchment and green rooftops."

The health of the river is never far from Kress's mind, and even as the photos were taken for this story near the Talmage bridge, Kress observed a group of people walking near the river into private property adjacent to the legal egress area. Kress felt obligated to notify both the landowners and the Mendocino County Sheriffs, who arrived at the scene and had a conversation with the individuals congregating under the Talmage bridge.

"The transient situation is a continual problem that is getting worse," says Kress. "Last year we had to do four cleanups of this area." She is very thankful that local law enforcement has made a commitment to provide periodic visits to the river areas, both to discourage illegal camping and to help to protect the area from the human and toxic waste that percolates into the river and contaminates what will become the community's drinking water.

To date, the cleanup has hauled out 5,848 tires and 100 tons of scrap metal and toxins from the river. But Kress isn't just looking at local water pollution.

"There are two floating pools of plastic in the ocean the size of the United States," says Kress. The North Pacific Gyre is a swirling subtropical current that amasses and holds together this continent of floating garbage, creating an oceanic desert and endangering plant and aquatic life in the region. Kress sees local pollution as a microcosm of disregard for the planet each time she picks up yet another plastic bottle, diaper or cigarette butt carelessly strewn by the river.

"One human being doesn't create a problem," says Kress.

For Charlie Kelly and his fellow Rotarians, there is no doubt they will be back on the river in a few months, doing their part to keep the Russian River pristine. Along with Plocher, Kelly and Doble, committee members Richard Cooper, Paul Holden, Bob Rogers, Rob Schroeder, Jim Sligh, and Francine and Ron Selim will be on the lookout for other stewards to honor in the future. Regarding Kress and the Russian River cleanup, Kelly says, "Sometimes you get a T-shirt, you'll probably get a sunburn, but you'll always get a great feeling of satisfaction."

Rebecca Kress, Savannah Buckmann, Supervisor Colfax

The Mendocino County Water Agency honored Savannah Buckmann, of Ukiah, on October 22, for the extraordinary work she has done to educate the public on how to keep the creeks, rivers, and ocean free from pollutants caused by stormwater runoff.