Hundreds volunteer to clean up rivers this month

ALBANY - Volunteers will patrol the banks of the Flint River this month in hopes the trash will disappear and the birds will fly again. <br> <br> The Flint River project is part of Rivers Alive, a privately funded volunteer effort to clean up rivers throughout the state. This year&#39;s event is scheduled to coincide with Make A Difference Day on October 26th. <br> <br> The president of the Albany Audubon Society, Don Cook, said ``It&#39;s just so depressing to see the trash, to see people not caring. If we can just get it cleaned up, maybe people will stop polluting.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Last year, the Albany Audubon Society collected enough trash from the riverbank to fill 80 30-gallon garbage bags. <br> <br> Cook said he wants to protect the river and help the bird population. <br> <br> A spokeswoman for Georgia&#39;s Adopt-A-Stream, Kim Morris-Zarneke, said volunteers are needed for such a large project as cleaning the state&#39;s 70,000 miles of rivers and streams. <br> <br> She said about 18,000 volunteers cleared more than 120,000 pounds of trash from hundreds of miles of Georgia waterways last year, she said. <br> <br> Morris-Zarneke said those numbers should climb this year, with more than 125 statewide cleanups scheduled in October alone.