Chattooga County 4H was recognized by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources “Rivers Alive” Program on Tuesday for their participation in the annual event.

The “Rivers Alive” program was started by the Georgia DNR in 1999 and is now celebrating twenty years of cleaning up Georgia’s waterways. Throughout the history of Rivers Alive, over 463 thousand volunteers extracted 110.0 million pounds of garbage from 32.0 thousand miles of waterway.

Chattooga County Extension Agent Rebecca Thomas says, “I have been fortunate to be involved with Rivers Alive for the past 20 years (from its conception). Today on its 20th year, Chattooga 4-H was awarded the state award for our involvement. Lots of memories over these 20 years and thousands of young people helping preserve our streams, rivers, and water ways. This award goes to those thousands of young people who made a difference.”

The recognition was given to Chattooga County 4-H yesterday in Atlanta.  DNR officials say that the “Rivers Alive” program has had a tremendous impact on communities and their watersheds in the past, and that the numbers from each successive year’s cleanups indicate that Rivers Alive will continue to grow into the next decade.