Join our team – Mobile, AL

The Osprey Initiative workers are pictured at the end of a pier under a bridge and overlooking the water. Some team members are on the pier and others are in boats. Bagged trash and litter are in front of the team.

Like working outside? Passionate about your local waterways and natural places? Want to do more to protect our natural places? This is the job for you!

Join our team – Decatur, AL

Like working outside? Passionate about your local waterways and natural places? Want to do more to protect our natural places? This is the job for you!

‘Litter Gitter’ device installed in Buck Creek Park

ALABASTER — A litter control device known as a “Litter Gitter” was installed in a section of Buck Creek within Alabaster’s Buck Creek Park on Friday, March 11 and will help reduce litter in area waterways. Made possible through an EPA Trash-Free Waters grant awarded through the Freshwater Land Trust in spring 2020, the Litter Gitter […]

Ogeechee Riverkeeper working to protect the Vernon River from litter

Ogeechee Riverkeeper (ORK) in partnership with The City of Savannah, has recently overseen the installation of two litter booms in the Chippewa and Harmon canals. Designed and installed by Osprey Initiative, the booms are floating barriers that trap litter, such as plastic bottles from moving downstream. The booms were purchased thanks to a grant from […]

Fairhope considering litter trap to combat trash in waterways

The city of Fairhope is considering purchasing a litter trap similar to the ones used along some waterways in Mobile. The city’s environmental team has identified a problem spot where a detention pond collects trash along with runoff. “It really can become a bit of a nuisance, particularly after a big rain or a big […]

Fairhope taking proactive approach to litter problem

FAIRHOPE, Ala. (WPMI) — Fairhope city officials are hoping to get ahead of the problem as environmental concerns mount in one of Baldwin County’s fastest growing cities. It’s all about that trash you see on the side of the road and other trash that’s carelessly thrown out by so many people. To some it may not […]

New devices are trapping litter that’s trashing up MS Coast waterways. What to know.

Marine litter is being scooped up in four Coast waterways as part of a pilot project to improve water quality, particularly in the Mississippi Sound. The Coastal Marine Extension Program at Mississippi State University is overseeing the project that has deployed Litter Gitters in four Coast waterways: the southern branch of Magnolia Bayou in Hancock […]

Mississippi tests floating trash traps in coastal bayous

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is using BP oil spill money in a test to see whether floating trash traps placed in coastal waterways can make a big reduction in the amount of litter in the Mississippi Sound. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality wants to learn “if these traps can substantially reduce the amount […]

New abatement project to help clean up Mile Branch, Tchefuncte River

There will soon be a demonstration project to control litter in Mile Branch, one of Covington’s major streams flowing into the Tchefuncte River, thanks to a new Healthy Communities Grant awarded to Keep Covington Beautiful. The project will feature a litter boom that intercepts floating debris in Mile Branch near Pine View Middle School. The […]

Trash Free Waters Project to focus on cleaning up Jones, Carpenter and Pond creeks

Northwest Florida is home to a new estuary program whose mission is restoring and protecting the water quality and natural resources of the Pensacola and Perdido watersheds. The program, known as the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, is using a $2 million grant to establish a comprehensive conservation management plan. PPBED received funding from the EPA […]

Tarrant’s “litter gitter” installed

TARRANT — Project Litter Gitter partners installed a “litter gitter” device in Five Mile Creek at Chief William C Hewitt Park in Tarrant on Thursday, September 16. ABC Coke, a division of Drummond Company, is sponsoring the litter gitter for one year. Jefferson County has 11 litter gitter’s and this is the first in Five […]

34th Annual Alabama Coastal Cleanup

For 34 years, groups and individuals across the Alabama Gulf Coast have been coming together one day a year to clean up our waterways and shorelines. It’s the Alabama Coastal Cleanup, and the 34th annual event is set for Saturday, Sept. 18. “We are looking forward to a large, coast-wide event. It’s a great way […]

Freshwater Land Trust to install 11th Litter Gitter in Tarrant, 11,000+ pounds of trash collected

Freshwater Land Trust (FLT) and their partners have a lot to celebrate on National Cleanup Day this coming Saturday, September 18th. 11 Litter Gitters In December of 2019, FLT launched Project Litter Gitter, one of the most successful local water quality programs in recent memory. What’s a Litter Gitter? A Litter Gitter is an in-stream litter collection device patented by Osprey […]

Waterways cleanups progress to Milton area

Northwest Florida is home to a new estuary program whose mission is restoring and protecting the water quality and natural resources of the Pensacola and Perdido watersheds. The program, known as the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, is using a $2 million grant to establish a comprehensive conservation management plan. PPBED received funding from the EPA […]

Osprey removes 100K pounds of floating litter

Osprey Initiative has celebrated a major milestone: removing 100,000 pounds of floating litter from waters. Osprey Initiative, an environmental contractor based in Mobile, Alabama, is owned by Tangipahoa Parish native Don Bates. The company’s team began collecting data in 2017 and now works with partners in nine states to install, maintain and collect data from […]

City makes progress on litter collection, but sources remain problematic

Reviewing his multiple blogs and social media profiles, still archived online after his death in 2016, two things about Rob Nykvist are clear: First, he was an environmentalist. His journal entries, photos and videos, posted between 2011 and 2016, may be the best record of the extent of Mobile’s litter problem during a period when […]

State environmental group eases restrictions for Mobile stormwater management

A screen shot of the WKRG news story shows Osprey founder Don Bates in a boat on the Mobile waters.

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — The City of Mobile’s efforts to keep stormwater litter under control has paid off. “The City of Mobile has been working a really long time to get our act together on stormwater litter — and we have,” said Chief Resilience Officer Casi Callaway. Callaway told WKRG News 5 the city has […]

Join our team – Mobile, AL

The Osprey Initiative workers are pictured at the end of a pier under a bridge and overlooking the water. Some team members are on the pier and others are in boats. Bagged trash and litter are in front of the team.

Like working outside? Passionate about your local waterways and natural places? Want to do more to protect our natural places? This is the job for you!

Volunteers clear trash in Manchac

An Albany church youth group removed 650 pounds of litter and recyclable items from Manchac this past weekend with the help of Keep Tangipahoa Beautiful and Osprey Initiative. Because of the pandemic, St. Margaret Youth Group Mission Krewe was unable to take its usual week-long summer mission trip. Instead, the 25 high school students, young […]