Community cleanup effort planned

Talk about it

Dickinson residents aren’t going to sit around and wait for the dead fish floating in Patterson Lake to cleanup themselves.

Greg Pruitt, who lives near the lake and regularly fishes it with the cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, the Dickinson Parks and Recreation Department, North Dakota Game and Fish Department and local businesses are organizing a cleanup effort to take place this weekend.

“That’s the challenge that I want to put out to people,” Pruitt said. “If you’re a skier or a jet skier, or whatever. If you feel obligated to come out and cleanup the lake because you use it, now’s a good time to show your appreciation.”

The cleanup effort is scheduled to begin at noon on Sunday. Volunteers are asked to meet at the boat ramp near the Game and Fish District office on the north shore of the lake.

Pruitt said anyone interested in helping with the cleanup is welcome.

“Anybody that’s a sportsman or anybody who feels they should help, the more people the better,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt said he looks at it as his obligation as a sportsman, that being a sportsman is about getting out and enjoying the outdoors whether the fish are biting or not and the cleanup is part of that.

Volunteers are asked to bring a shovel, pitchfork or fishing net, basically anything that can scoop a fish out of the water, Pruitt said, adding that those with boats are welcome as well so they can get the fish further out from the shore.

Once groups are organized for the cleanup they will be asked to go up and down the shore filling garbage bags with the fish.

The Game and Fish will donate fishing nets to the cause and the Parks and Rec is donating rubber gloves for whoever might need them.

“The community — everyone seems to be coming together,” Pruitt said.

Tags: pruitt, northland, outdoors, cleanup, fish, kill, winterkill, patterson, lake, fishing, john, odermann