22nd Annual Blackfoot River Cleanup

As one of Montana’s most storied blue ribbon streams, the Blackfoot is beautiful and wild, yet easily accessible for recreation. To maintain the Blackfoot’s pristine condition, our community relies on an annual grassroots cleanup effort. Started in 2004 by the Pfister family of Potomac, Montana, the annual Blackfoot River Cleanup—held every year since on the last Saturday of July (that’s July 26 this year)—brings local families, fishing and boating enthusiasts, and conservationists together to walk or wade one of the Blackfoot’s most stunning corridors. (We also invite divers to scour the river bottom for rubbish.) The endeavor continues today thanks to the volunteers of Potomac’s Blackfoot Home and Community Club (BHCC), who, as tradition holds, will provide volunteers with a light lunch at Johnsrud Park, available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Last year, we had to cancel last-minute due to the severe wind storms that raged across Northwest Montana, so we're really hoping for a well-attended, productive event this year—let's up the community spirit ante, while purging our arguably greatest natural resource of rubbish! The Blackfoot Cleanup tradition has persevered, year after year, thanks to the thousands of dedicated community members who have cumulatively purged more than 20,000 aluminum cans, and thousands more bottles, shoes, and other detritus—countless blight that would still present in the river and on its banks if not for the BHCC, our dedicated volunteers, and the many local merchants we rely on to aid in our distribution of mesh trash collection bags.