Aug. 14—BUFFALO EDDY — Twins Luke and Bo Siler and their pals Ryken Craber and Josh Hoffman made quick work of a beach on the Washington side of the Snake River just upstream of Captain John Rapid.

The Clarkston teens plucked a few cans and other bits of trash from a fire ring and found some other pieces of litter on the expanse of white sand. But the beach was relatively tidy even before the quick scrub they gave it Saturday.

It wasn't always that way. Jolene Hopper of Lewiston remembers when it would take hard work from a dozen volunteers to clean this particular beach, a favorite of car campers and partiers.

"We would be here generally, on average, at least two hours and there would be people everywhere picking up trash," she said. "You got here and everyone would go out with buckets, not just a bag."

The volunteers, from the group River Access for Tomorrow, also known as RAFT, hold cleanup floats on the Snake and Clearwater rivers every summer. They pickup things like beer and pop cans, broken glass and other random garbage left behind by beach goers.

But in the past, they spent much of their time collecting nails — all that remained from pallets burned in bonfires — from several of the beaches along the Snake River between Heller Bar and Asotin. They would paw through the old fire rings and bonfire sites with shovels and rakes and even used makeshift sifters to remove the nails.

Bill Hopper of Lewiston carried those tools in his drift boat Saturday, but they were scarcely needed.

"Since they put the boulders in, (beach goers) can't drive down here anymore," he said. "And they patrol it a lot more.'

A few years ago, officials in Asotin County put an emphasis on reining in bonfires. They blocked vehicle access to beaches from Snake River Road, implemented summertime burn bans and conducted emphasis patrols along the river.

Club members say it seems to be making a difference. They still find plenty of trash to pick up, but say the beaches are in better shape than they once were.

"It was a mess," said Brian Bannan of Uniontown. "Every year they are cleaner and cleaner."

The club holds the cleanups with that goal in mind and with the hope that its effort will be noticed and replicated by others. Club president Joe Anderson of Lewiston said the group's goal is to foster fellowship in the rafting community to improve area rivers.

The club members are well versed in leave-no-trace ethics he said and enjoy remote float trips to places like the lower Salmon, main Salmon or Middle Fork of the Salmon Rivers, or the roadless section of Hells Canyon.

Experienced river runners, including rafters and jetboaters, who visit those places tend to take care of the beaches and go to great pains to clean up after themselves. Many even obsess over making sure they don't leave behind micro-trash — tiny bits of garbage like the corner of a candy bar wrapper or a twist-tie.

The result is beaches and banks that seem untouched.

"A lot of days it's hard to tell that anybody's ever been on that beach before," Anderson said. "And that's what we all want to experience."

But rivers with road access tend to get more intense use, often by people without the same leave-no-trace ethic, and thus need some TLC. That's true of the lower Snake River. While it may be better, it's far from pristine. Collected garbage included things like old cardboard boxes, toilet tissue, bottle caps and camping gear.

Sometimes the cleanup crews find trash like crushed beer cans neatly tucked under a bush or beneath a rock — a curious occurrence in which it seemed the person who left them behind did not not want to be seen littering and yet were willing to do just that.

"I feel guilty but I'm still going to do it," said Bill Hopper, trying to imagine what the litterbug was thinking.

At the end of the floats, the group holds barbecues and distributes prizes, donated by local businesses like NRS and Clearwater Paper, to the volunteers. More information about RAFT is available at facebook.com/riveraccessfortomorrow/.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.

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