2026 French Creek Watershed Cleanup
Saturday, September 12th
FCVC’s Annual French Creek Cleanup is a chance for volunteers to help us collect garbage, on land or in the water, throughout the watershed. Participants chose a location (public or FCVC’s properties) and clean up! Then trash is weighed in and collected at the Crawford County Fairgrounds, with a volunteer picnic to follow. Trash collection is from 11am to 3pm. Individuals, teams, schools, clubs and organizations are entered into drawings for cash prizes. The schools with the most participants will win a cash prize for their science program.
In 2025, 225 volunteers collected more than 37,000 pounds of trash and planted 100 trees!
Since 1992, people who live, work and play in the French Creek watershed have been joining together once a year to show their love for the river and the land. That year a small group of FCVC friends decided to get together for a day, clean the river they loved by collecting trash, and celebrate with a potluck picnic after. They continued meeting annually and the event grew. By the late 2000s, corporate sponsorships and friendly competitions for participants were added. This included a small industrial scale to weigh trash loaned by a local business.
Fast forward a few decades, and the Cleanup has become the largest day of stewardship in the watershed with hundreds of volunteers. Thank you to our corporate sponsors who help make this annual event a great success!