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Waste Tire Recovery
The Tug Fork River is plagued with thousands upon thousands of old, illegally dumped, waste tires. Our "Tire Tug of War" river cleanup effort was started in 2019 and has made significant progress but we have many, many years of work and many, many thousands of tires ahead.
The vast majority of the tires recovered have beeen in the river for decades. They are from an era of lax regulation and weak enforcement and are the result of a culture of treating our river as a dumping ground. The culture has changed but the tires have remained...until now.
Check out pictures and details from each event!
2024 - Six years and counting!
2024 - Six years and counting!
Slaters Branch, KY - October 21, 2024
Slaters Branch, KY - October 21, 2024
Our last waste tire cleanup up the year was delayed until yesterday. It is late in the season with cold air in the mornings and cold water all day but we had this one planned and wanted to get it done this year.
We had a good day recovering 334 waste tires from the river. The water was too cold to get all of them in this location but we’ll be back to get those next summer.
Thanks to Pike County Kentucky, local volunteers, LiKEN Knowledge, and WV DEP REAP for hands on help today. We appreciate Jimmy Kinzer for allowing us to use his property, Jason Evans of Ace Excavation for cleaning up a short road to the river for our use, and Williamson Health & Wellness for feeding our hungry crew.
Our total waste tire recovery count for 2024 is 2,843. Our new 6 year grand total of waste tires recovered from the Tug Fork River is 16,183.
Goodman, WV - Sept 11, 2024
Goodman, WV - Sept 11, 2024
We had a busy two days at our new official public access site at Goodman, WV. A parking area has been created, the huge mud hole at the entrance has been eliminated, the road down to the river has been smoothed and graveled, and 372 waste tires were recovered from the river here.
Thanks to Kapourales Properties for leasing the site to Friends of the Tug Fork River, WV DNR, and Williamson Parks & Recreation. It is now officially open for public use with more improvements coming soon.
Thanks to the WV Division of Highways for getting the monster mud hole beside the highway drained and filled and cleaning up the road right-of-way frontage to the site.
Thanks to a combined effort of WV DEP, WV DNR, and Collins Services LLC for the site cleanup and repairs to the road to the river.
Then, today, our Tire Tug of War Event recovered 372 waste tires from the river just downstream of the site. It was an absolutely beautiful day to be working in the river. We even had a Bald Eagle circle above us with a watchful eye. Our help in the river today came from local volunteers, Stream Sweepers Central Appalachia Project, Stream Sweepers Clinch River Project, and, as always, our most valuable players from WV DEP REAP.
Thanks to Nathan Brown for coordinating with WV DOH and Williamson Health & Wellness for feeding our hungry crew.
Borderland, WV - August 28, 2024
Borderland, WV - August 28, 2024
What we thought would be a light day turned into major waste tire cleanup just below the Borderland access site. We recovered 729 tires from the Tug Fork River today. Our new six year total waste tires removed from the Tug Fork River is 14,380.
Thanks to our local volunteers, Stream Sweepers Central Appalachia Project, West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Kentucky Division of Water, and, as always, WV DEP REAP. All provided invaluable labor at this event.
Support for today's event came from: Williamson Health and Wellness Center provided food for our hungry crew. Jerome Marcum allowed the use of his property. Steve Francis provided labor and equipment to cleanup and repair the old boat ramp at the site.
Williamson, WV / South Williamson, KY - August 14, 2024
Williamson, WV / South Williamson, KY - August 14, 2024
August 14, 2024 was a prefect day in the water with Stream Sweepers - Central Appalachia Project, WV DEP REAP, and volunteers.
The weather was great and the river was low, slow, and clear. We were short-handed but recovered 311 waste tires from the Tug Fork along the West Williamson flood wall.
2023 - The year we hit 10,000!
2023 - The year we hit 10,000!
Tire Tug of War
2023 Final Numbers
Our 2023 Tug Fork River "Tire Tug of War" waste tire cleanup project is done for the year with some big numbers. We worked projects along the border between Mingo County, WV and Pike County, KY.
A total of 4,566 waste tires were recovered from the waters of our river this year bringing us to a five year project total of 13,340 tires.
Burnwell Beach, KY - Sept 6, 2023
Burnwell Beach, KY - Sept 6, 2023
On Sept. 6 we hit the beach, Burnwell Beach, in Pike County, KY. Burnwell is a popular recreation site with a large sandy beach area along a long, fast water shoal. The shoal and area just below yielded 564 tires that day. That brought our total of recovered tires to 10,608!
Scenic beauty being restored at Burnwell Beach, KY...one tire at a time.
Lobata / Sprigg, WV - August 21 & 24, 2023
Lobata / Sprigg, WV - August 21 & 24, 2023
We worked the river between Williamson and Matewan three times in late August and early September. On August 21 the target was a shoal near Lobata, WV that was lined with waste tires. The 24th of August led us to an area in Sprigg, WV just upstream of the Tug Valley Country Club golf course. A total of 874 tires were recovered during these two events. After five years of work, our 10,000th tire was recovered at Sprigg and saved for posterity!
Volunteers roll tires across the the low water in a shoal at Lobata, WV
Unloading the jon boat barges full of tires at Sprigg, WV
Tires in a shoal at Lobata, WV
FotTFR's John Burchett with the 10,000th tire recovered after five years of work.
Sprigg, WV - April 14, 2023
Sprigg, WV - April 14, 2023
We started our war on tires in the Tug Fork River earlier than usual this year. Working on an island/peninsula with help from Hatfield McCoy Airboat Tours, The Dirty Hooker ATV Recovery Service, Pike County inmates, volunteers, and, as always, WV DEP REAP we recovered 396 waste tires from our river channel. Since 2019, FotTFR has led an effort that has removed a grand total 9,170 illegally dumped tires from the Tug Fork River.
We always need volunteers for these events during the summer. Keep an eye on our Facebook group for announcements.
2022 - Three years of success!
2022 - Three years of success!
Thanks to a lot of local support and the help of Human Resources Development Foundation, we had a record setting 3,675 tires recovered during our annual "Tire Tug of War" river cleanup this year. As always, we thank WV DEP REAP! They bring equipment, manpower, and expertise to get the job done then properly dispose of the tires recovered.
Williamson, WV / South Williamson, KY - 2022
Williamson, WV / South Williamson, KY - 2022
We began our "Tire Tug of War" river tire cleanup project in 2019 in a 1/3 mile stretch of river below the South Williamson flood wall. Four years later, we ran out of tires at this site with a grand total of 4,962 tires recovered from the river here.
There are, undoubtedly, hundreds more tires buried in the sand and silt of the riverbank and river bottom in this area. These tires will become exposed as the river shifts over time. For the first time, this year, we made a clean sweep of this section of river and could find no more tires. In years past we had always run out of time before we ran out of tires. We will be back next year to gather stragglers.
This project could not happen without involvement of State, County, and Local Governments, local businesses, organizations, and individuals. Our biggest support comes from West Virginia DEP REAP, we couldn't have accomplished this monumental task without them.
Thanks to all that have helped with this project!
The morning after our event was complete. A beautiful, tire-free Tug Fork River.
Waste tires are one of the biggest problems in our river.
Kermit, WV / Warfield, KY - Aug. 29 & Sept. 15, 2022
Kermit, WV / Warfield, KY - Aug. 29 & Sept. 15, 2022
Local partners included the City of Warfield (KY), Kermit (WV) Volunteer Fire Department, Martin County (KY) and the WV Human Resources Development Foundation. As always, WV DEP REAP lead the way with their personnel, equipment, and expertise.
Friends of the Tug Fork River hosted river tire cleanup events on August 29th and September 15th at the Warfield, KY boat ramp. With a lot of local support, 640 illegally dumped tires were recovered on the 1st day and 211 on the 2nd day for a total of 851 tires removed from our river.
Most of the tires had been in the river for decades and are believed to have been dumped there over many years, by a now out-of-business local service station.
WV DEP REAP's HydraTrek works at pulling tires loose from the sand and silt. The machine is a godsend!
An empty "barge" heads upriver to reload with waste tires recovered from the river.
McCarr, Kentucky - August 24, 2022
McCarr, Kentucky - August 24, 2022
Crews from WV DEP REAP, WV Human Resources Development Foundation, and Friends of the Tug Fork River worked in our river at the Hatfield McCoy Feud PawPaw Tree Incident Historical Site on August 24th. The group effort recovered approximately 75 waste tires from the river within view of the popular tourist attraction. WV HRDF is using grant funding from WV DEP to hire local workers for a Summer river cleanup project.
2021 Tire Tug of War
2021 Tire Tug of War
2020 Tire Tug of War
2020 Tire Tug of War
The year 2020 was plagued by the Covid 19 pandemic. West Virginia DEP halted assisting with all group projects for the entire summer season but tire cleanup momentum was maintained with an effort by the Williamson Fire Department. Firefighters recovered 180 waste tires from the river along Williamson's business district flood wall.
2019 - The year it all began!
2019 - The year it all began!
The summer of 2019 was very dry in the Tug Valley and the Tug Fork River ran very low. Many thousands of tires poked out of the river's water between the South Williamson, Kentucky flood wall and the City of Williamson, West Virginia. A phone call was made to WV DEP REAP, a site visit was held, and then, progress was made. During a four day event with many hard working volunteers, 2,321 old waste tires were recovered from the water.
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