Summer Urban River Keepers
Fast Facts
Objective: To maintain and monitor the health and navigability of the Seine River
Location: Entire 26 km length of the Seine River within Winnipeg
Years Active: 1994 - Ongoing
Every summer, SOS hires a small team of local youths to help care for the Seine River and surrounding areas.
The River Keepers travel the length of the river several times by foot, truck, canoe, and row boat. They remove garbage and hidden obstacles from the river so that paddlers can safely navigate the river. They remove truckloads of garbage - from fast food wrappers to shopping carts, tires, furniture, and appliances. They pull weeds and invasive shrubs in public green spaces and maintain trails on both banks of the river.
Click here for a detailed account of the team's activities in 2020.
Without these annual clean-ups, the shallow and narrow river winding through Winnipeg would soon become clogged and stagnant. Please consider donating if you would like to support this initiative. A gift of $100 allows us to clean a half-kilometer of river or riverbank.
Project Supporters
For many years, the province of Manitoba has provided funding for our River Keepers through the Urban Green Team program. This allows SOS to employ a minimum of four youths each summer to sweep the river from the Floodway to the Red River, sometimes multiple times a season, to remove garbage, clear log jams, and help restore and repair the surrounding greenway.
Casera has supported both our River Keepers and Adopt-a-River initiatives, providing $10,000 per year from 2007 to 2017, and $5,000 per year from 2018 to 2019. Casera’s branch in the Southglen mall is located near the southern entrance to Bois-des-Esprits.
SOS would like to thank Shurwood Tree Service for helping to clear logs from the river every year.