Cash Daniels and the Cleanup Kids Are Cleaning and Conserving America’s Rivers
Rivers Are Life
Cash Daniels has always been interested in rivers and waterways.
The obsession started at seven, when he learned the Tennessee River in his home state was among the most polluted with microplastics in the world. At nine, he attended OceanHeroes Bootcamp, a camp for kids who are interested in starting campaigns focused on sustainability issues.
There, Cash met Ella Grace, and the pair used their second year at camp as a launch pad for an ongoing movement, led by young people whose energy and personal experience drive the environmental movement forward.
Ella, now 13, and Cash, 14, founded The Cleanup Kids, a non-profit engaging the environmental leaders of tomorrow in work that makes substantive change. Together, they were honorees for the 2021 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for their work rallying others to engage in community cleanups, leading plastic pollution education sessions, and speaking around the world.
They’ve become accustomed to travel, seeking experiences unique to location. In each place they’ve visited, The Cleanup Kids have found smart people contributing great ideas. Along the way, Cash has been inspired knowing conservation efforts are underway elsewhere. The sheer amount of waste in our rivers can be overwhelming, and Cash has removed more than 30,000 pounds of trash from the Tennessee River.
“I have been across the entire state of Tennessee,” Cash tells Teen Vogue. He and the Cleanup Kids regularly work with state parks and the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation and meet with state legislators in Nashville at least once a year to discuss environmental public policy.
In May, Cash will learn first-hand about Alaska’s wildlife and conservation efforts, and in July, he’s on to Costa Rica for a research trip to tag sharks, rays, and study sea turtles. He’s snorkled with turtles in Mexico, traveled to the Bahamas to dive with Tiger Sharks, and visited Rio Motagua in Guatemala. Cash often travels to Florida to scuba dive and do research work with mentors.
It was in Florida that he saw organizers promote the idea of monofilament bins, which are installed along shorelines and intended for fishing waste, like extra lines.
“I wondered how I could make them work in Tennessee and adjusted the design for [our] specific program, which has now spread across the whole state and has been introduced into our state park’s environmental program as well,” he says.
Cash and his community have also installed bins in Florida and Georgia, and recently worked with Rivers Are Life to install 50 more throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region in Michigan. He’s also worked along the Mississippi River, which supplies nearly 20 million people with drinking water, and altogether, from these bins, he’s collected over 2,000 miles of fishing line.
“I believe you won’t protect what you don’t love and you can’t love something you have no knowledge or experience with,” Cash says.
As a young river steward, Cash doesn’t back away from hot-button topics. Consider dam removal: environmental efforts intended to restore ecology within waterways that have been blocked by human-built dams, which are sometimes met with resistance from those who believe the benefits of dams outweigh their environmental impacts.
“Chattanooga and Nashville used to have huge floods that were devastating, and those are more manageable because of the dam systems we now have,” Cash explains. “On the other hand, there are fish species here that can no longer migrate to their spawning grounds and are becoming more and more threatened and/or endangered.”
Cash cites the Snake River dams removal in Washington as an example of a model that needs changing. Those dams have “caused the salmon population to plummet,” he says, and if not addressed, “these fish are likely to become extinct.”
But decisions that impact waterways are complicated, and “must be approached carefully and with a lot of consideration,” he says. While environmentalists may see removal as a win, Cash notes that issues arise from the removal process itself. The issue is further complicated because “we also rely heavily on hydroelectric power which [dams] provide, so breaching or demolishing a dam would have a significant impact on any infrastructure.”
Travel has opened Cash’s eyes to how people and habitat are connected, and how all living creatures are dependent on waterways’ health. When asked about his peer influences and campaigns that have inspired him, he thinks globally.
“I know a kid here in the States who raises money and is working hard to save orangutans and speak up vigilantly about the palm oil plantations that are devastating wildlife populations in Indonesia. I know a kid in Australia who focuses on saving a specific threatened bird species and addresses deforestation by speaking publicly on these issues,” he says.
Ella addresses the rapidly declining shark populations by speaking with school groups and also addressing government leaders; someone else Cash knows in Canada speaks frequently about climate change and spreads awareness via his YouTube channel.
“There are so many more,” he says. “I have met kids from all over the world who are doing something to better the planet because they saw a need.” Social media expands access to other conservationists, inspiring Cash and creating far-flung networks.
Cash relies on mentors and teachers to show him what paths are available, and photography and cinematography are a comfortable fit into his future, he says. They are career paths he is seriously considering.
“I feel as if you can show people other parts of the world they may otherwise never see. You can show the animals, places and issues they are completely unaware of,” he says. ”Bringing those experiences to the masses via film is necessary so we can truly appreciate our planet and what it has to offer.”
Bolstered by his peers' work, Cash feels additionally supported by Ella and the supportive adults in his life. He thinks the suggestion that he and his peers should sit back and do “kid” things is baffling:
“Why would I wait for ‘someone’ to address the issues I see, when I am indeed someone?”
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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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