You are invited to a community cleanup day on the Mohawk Towpath Byway on the anniversary of Earth Day, April 21, 2012.

At 10 AM meet at the entrance to the Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve at the intersection of Van Vranken and Riverview Roads, Clifton Park.  Bring your favorite pruning tool(s) or brush cutter well marked so you will not get them mixed up with your fellow volunteer’s.   We will be picking up litter and debris and trimming back encroaching vegetation along the towpath trail as we work westward to meet a group starting from Historic Lock 19 and working east.

Dress for the weather in layers with good hiking footwear.  Plastic gloves and trash bags will be provided, but if you’re planning to use hand tools your favorite work gloves may work better.

There are other cleanup efforts going on all along the Byway.

• At 9 AM the Southern Saratoga Interact will be doing their semiannual roadside cleanup along Riverview Road from VanVranken Road to Vischer Ferry Road.
• In Halfmoon a troop of Boy Scouts will be meeting at Terminal Road at 10 AM and working along Crescent Park and the riverfront along Canal Road.  For more information contact the Town of Halfmoon.
• Waterford Museum will host a cleaning party along the towpath near Old Champlain Canal Lock 4 (located in front of the Museum). Volunteers are asked to bring work gloves and arrive around 9am at the Museum. Work will continue until around noon, after which a free lunch will be provided for all of the Clean Sweep volunteers helping in Waterford at Lock 2 Park. For more information, please contact Teri Patton at 233-1686 or 527-3535.

This is all a part of the Erie Canal Clean Sweep program going on from Albany to Buffalo and north to Whitehall.  Join your neighbors as well as those across the state as we all pitch in to make our communities a better place to live, work and play.