Over 40 volunteers helped a Life Scout with Boy Scout Troop 14 in Salmon Creek rid abandoned boats in the waterways near Ridgefield over the weekend.
Christian Stiever accomplished his year-long effort on Saturday, April 13, with 42 volunteers participating in his project to search for abandoned vessels and remove trash with the goal of receiving his Eagle Scout rank. The volunteers gathered at the Ridgefield boat ramp and received information from Stiever and from there, they set off to search the entirety of the Lake River, encompassing Bachelor Island and the mouth of the Lewis River to the Interstate 5 bridge near Woodland, for abandoned vessels, which they then marked for later removal.
After the day ended, Stiever said he was relieved, overwhelmed and still stressed as he then presented his findings and the overall project to the Port of Ridgefield on Monday, April 15.
“The day was amazing,” Stiever said. “I had 42 volunteers show up at this event, and we had six zones that were covered, covering almost the full 32 miles of recognized water trail. … We found 14 derelict boats. Some of them were down by Vancouver Lake and the others were on the Lewis and a little bit on the Columbia. We also removed 50 pounds of trash from the water.”
To find and note the abandoned vessels, volunteers utilized three boats, two canoes, four kayaks and one dragon boat. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol unit was on the water for safety, as well. The best part was no one received injuries, Stiever said. They did have a medical professional on standby in case of an injury.
Because of the success of the event and interest from community members, Stiever said his project beat expectations.
“Seeing everything fall together perfectly was one of the greater moments that I really enjoyed,” he said.
Stiever added the presence of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office Marine Patrol Unit made the day even more memorable.
Stiever decided on his Eagle Scout project while practicing on the Lake River for a paddle boat trip in Utah with his fellow Troop 14 members. At the time, he noticed a lot of abandoned boats along the shore, he said in a previous article by The Reflector. Stiever, an eighth grader at View Ridge Middle School in Ridgefield, has used Ridgefield area waterways all his life.
“He exceeded my expectations on a lot of this, and I think he’s maybe still a little overwhelmed or maybe shell-shocked that it’s finally done,” John Stiever, Christian’s father, said. “I’m happy to see anybody do this sort of thing for the community. I’m excited to see somebody in scouts do this sort of activity and not just build the typical park bench, and I am elated that it happens to be my son that took on this sort of project.”
The Port of Ridgefield will use state funds available through the Washington Department of Natural Resources to remove the derelict boats Stiever identified.
“Once he maps things out, we’ll be able to make a solid push and get this junk removed, which has really been there since COVID,” Port of Ridgefield CEO Randy Mueller said in the previous Reflector article. “We’d like to return the Lake River to a kind of cleaner, more junk-free state than it currently is.”
Mueller said earlier this year that if boating records identify the last known legal owner of a derelict boat, the port will contact them to see if they are willing to come remove it.
Christian Stiever said a scrapping company has offered to remove the derelict vessels for free once they make it to land.
