Friends of the Tug Fork removed more than 14 thousand tires since 2019

TUG FORK RIVER  The Friends of the Tug Fork River continue to work to rid the river of unsightly tires that dot its banks.

According to the group’s website, The Friends of the Tug Fork River is a nonprofit organization formed to preserve and protect the Tug Fork River and its watershed, raise awareness of its history, and develop recreation, tourism, and economic opportunities.

The Friends of the Tug Fork group has rallied around the cause of removing tires from the river. Last week the group pulled more than seven hundred tires from the Tug with their first project in the Borderland area on August twenty-eighth.  In fact, the group pulled over a thousand tires total from the river and its banks in the month of August.

Since 2019, the group has removed 14,380 illegally dumped tires. Dubbed the “Tire Tug of War”, the group uses equipment supplied by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and manpower supplied by volunteers to clean-up the river.

Pete Runyon with the Friends of the Tug Fork regularly calls into “What’s Your Opinion?” and provides updates on the group’s progress. He has said that a majority of the tires have been in the river for decades. Many of the tires are those old white wall tires from the fifties and earlier. They pull the tires and send them to a shredding facility so the material can be recycled for other uses.

Runyon said the group has received help from not just the West Virginia DEP, but the Friends of the Tug Fork have been getting help from the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork. In fact, the Friends of the Tug Fork was recently awarded the Kentucky Watershed of the Year.

PHOTO | Friends of the Tug Fork River