A Pennsylvania kayaker enjoys making a lake more beautiful than just enjoying the scenery while he paddles.
James “Jim” Zueger of Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, has spent the past 10 years traveling to different lakes and ponds in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia removing litter others left behind.
“It’s very gratifying when I finish a lake. And if I paddle back through it or just go and drive around it, it’s pristine and clean. When I go into a place, there’s trash everywhere. And when I leave it's pristine, clean. That’s very gratifying to me,” he said in a telephone interview.
The 70-year-old retired ironworker has customized his kayak to accommodate upwards of 100 pounds of rubbish before he has to head back to the shore. “I don’t try to overload it. I’ve rolled over several times, maybe a half dozen times,” he said about balancing the heavy garbage.
How it started
“After I retired I was looking for different things to do and I started bike riding, walking on the trails and stuff like that and I saw people out on a kayak and they looked like they were having a lot of fun,” he said.
He met someone who explained how kayaking could help Zueger strengthen his sore shoulders.
“So then I started kayaking and right away I was seeing all this trash and it’s probably more noticeable to me because of the way I like to kayak. I like to hug the shoreline. If there’s a little creek, go up the creek, if there’s a cove, I go in the cove,” he explained.
He started complaining about the trash and one of his friends asked, “Are you just going to complain about it or are you going to do something about it?”
Zueger started thinking about it and that’s how he got started picking up litter while kayaking.
Over the years he’s been to about a dozen lakes in places between Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Somerset County.
Some of the waterways include the Youghiogheny Reservoir, Quemahoning Reservoir, Green Lick Reservoir, Virgin Run Lake, Loyalhanna Lake, Somerset Lake, Laurel Hill Lake, Acme Dam, Bridgeport Reservoir, Mammoth Lake and Cheat Lake in West Virginia.
Zueger conservatively estimates he’s probably retrieved about 100 tons of trash from waterways over the last decade.
He sees the usual type of litter like beverage cans and bottles and fishing bait containers, he also finds weird items, too. He’s recovered at least two toilets. “I say the people who throw that trash follow a rule. And that rule is if it can be thrown in the lake, it will be thrown in the lake,” he said with a laugh.
Once he has the items back to shore, he loads them in his truck and hauls them to a landfill, Republic Services, close to his home where they freely accept what he collects. He lives close to the East Huntingdon Township building and they have a burn pile where he can place items like lumber and other wooden items to be properly disposed.
“They’re doing me a great service, they are doing our people a great service,” he said about the township and landfill operator.
The Keep PA Beautiful organization sends him tools and garbage bags, too.
“The only thing they ask is that I report to them how much I clean up,” he said.
Zueger patrols the waterways throughout the spring, summer and fall, but stops when the snow starts to fly. “I’m an avid snowboarder,” he said. When the ski resorts open, he can be found enjoying area ski slopes.
Volunteer efforts being noticed
In 2020, he received the National Volunteer Award from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of the Youghiogheny River Lake in the Pittsburgh District. He was honored for donating more than 2,000 hours of volunteer service over a two-year period when he removed trash along 38 miles of shoreline.
Nicole Govan, Natural Resource Specialist, Pittsburgh District Office of the Army Corps of Engineers, noticed his efforts at the Youghiogheny Reservoir and nominated him for the honor.
“Jim was at the Youth Lake about every day when I worked there on his kayak,” she said in a telephone interview. She was impressed with the amount of litter and debris he removed from the lake and he volunteered with her during the lake’s annual clean-up event. “He stockpiled a lot of trash around the lake. Instead of us going from scratch, he went around entire the lake and just made piles and all we did for the event was go and pick it up,” she explained. There were pieces of old docks and lumber that he pulled from the lake.
“It’s obviously much cleaner since he’s done his work there,” she said about his ongoing efforts. “He could be an inspiration to a lot of people because it will help people remember that they won’t get anything accomplished if they complain about stuff, but if you start doing work, you can really make a difference.”
Zueger’s daughter, Julie Cardenas, created a gofundme.com fundraising page on June 27 for people to donate toward his expenses, including gasoline. As of Thursday afternoon, he received $1,671 from 60 people.
Cardenas, of Uniontown, said she’s been proud of her father’s efforts.
“I think it’s an absolutely wonderful thing that he’s spending his retirement, his own money and his time to help the community and the environment,” she said. “It’s important for him to go no matter how he feels,” she said noting his ongoing challenge with Lyme disease. “He’s going to these lakes every day to make sure the trash gets cleaned up. I think that’s pretty outstanding."
Regarding the support of the fundraising account, Zueger said, “I am thrilled. More so the comments sections. I’m just thrilled,” he said about the positivity. When he’s on the water, he feels his work is not always appreciated as some anglers may feel he’s in their way and some property owners don’t want to let him access the lake through their land.
Cardenas reminds people, “This is our planet we need to respect, appreciate and save. I very much see my father’s vision with it and really appreciate everything he’s doing.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him atbwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook@whipkeyoutdoors.
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