National Geographic speaker talks environment

When he was 17, Chad Pregracke decided to single handedly start cleaning up the Mississippi River near his home, located along the river in Illinois. His efforts caught local and then national attention, leading to a massive cleanup and the founding of his organization, Living Lands & Waters.

Pregracke, who is a member of the National Geographic Speakers Bureau, was the keynote speaker at the Great Lakes Place-based Education Conference November 6, cosponsored by Grand Valley and held at the Eberhard Center. Educators from across the Midwest attended to learn about hands-on environmental education opportunities.

Pregracke said, while in high school, he started taking pictures of the garbage in the river, hoping to get sponsors to help cleanup a 435-mile stretch of the Mississippi.

"I took pictures of the tons of garbage, tires, barrels, appliances and trash along the river and sent them to businesses in my hometown," said Pregracke. "People were shocked. But, that's what happened 25, 50 years ago; trash from homes and businesses was thrown into the river."

Pregracke said in 1997, the president of Alcoa gave him money to begin a cleanup. "I started picking up the garbage and putting it on my old boat. I unloaded it on my parents' lawn; that didn't go over too well," he said.

The local media picked up on Pregracke's efforts and soon he received national media attention. Now, 18 years after the formation of Living Lands & Waters, Pregracke uses a barge for garbage pick up. To date, about 94,000 volunteers have cleaned up nearly nine million pounds of garbage from areas along the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio rivers, as well as many of their tributaries. 

Pregracke is the author of “From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers.” He was named CNN Hero of the Year in 2013 and has delivered more than 300 presentations to corporate, public and student audiences worldwide.

Sponsors of the conference include the Great Lakes Fishery Trust (through its Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative), Grand Valley State University, Public Sector Consultants, Open Systems Technology, Trout Unlimited, John Ball Zoo, Grand Rapids Public Museum, Earth Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.