Wading into change: Passionate lecturer leads students on mission to clean Mecklenburg creeks

For eight years, Andrew Goff, a lecturer in biology, has invited Charlotte students to clean up local creeks as members of his Adopt-a-Spot crew, the Trash Taggers.

Three to five times per semester, Goff and crew travel to creek beds around Mecklenburg County, where students wade into the murky water and retrieve trash. To date, the Trash Taggers have collected 200,000 pounds of trash in the forms of tires, plastics and even a double vanity kitchen sink.

The group has earned recognition for its work including nominations for service awards and most recently being spotlighted in Charlotte Mecklenburg Storm Water Services volunteer newsletter.

“Will this keep every tire out of every creek throughout Mecklenburg County? Absolutely not,” Goff said. “But what we do is visible, tangible and has this level of interaction and engagement between people and environment that is irreplaceable.”

Niners Volunteer But Never Tire

The Trash Taggers began as the Department of Biological Sciences sought how to incorporate service-learning opportunities into classes at UNC Charlotte. Goff, who spent his life studying and cleaning waterways, saw an opportunity to offer students credit to join the local creek sweeps he was volunteering on.

“I had a lot of fun as a volunteer, so when I found out that anybody could do this, I decided I would incorporate it into a class as an option for something that I felt was important — giving students experiences outside the classroom,” Goff said.

One of the more remarkable cleanups Goff recalled occurred near Westinghouse Boulevard in south Charlotte. Goff and a group of 11 volunteers spread out around the stretch of creek, and in a creek bend surrounding a peninsula, the volunteers alerted Goff to a pile of tires, one of which they had pulled out themselves.

Pulling tires from a creek is hard work. The tires can weigh 40 to 50 pounds and require a special removal technique due to how they build up sediment. Goff made a deal with the volunteers that he would excavate the tires if they would walk them back — which in that moment sounded like a fair deal for both parties.

“I did not pull all those tires out, I stopped once I counted 25,” Goff said. “At one point, I had 12 or 14 tires standing up in the creek, and the students looked at me and said, ‘We made a bad deal, didn’t we?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah, you absolutely did.’”

By the end, the students wanted to take selfies of their accomplishments.

“Students were like ‘I can’t wait to tell my parents that I’m in a creek right now. Can I get a picture of that pile of trash? Nobody’s going to believe me at home,’” Goff recalled.

During cleanups, Goff interacts with volunteers as they share their observations of water quality, animal life and more.

“When you get a student in a creek and they see a fish move in the water or pour a crawdad out as they empty a can, you give them a unique experience that shapes their understanding of biology,” Goff said. “Because how many of these kids grew up playing in creeks? The sad truth is not a lot of them.”

Not Your Average Streamer

Jumping into streams is second nature to Goff. Growing up north of Raleigh, he would often explore streams in search of critters and other natural details. As a youth, his mother sent him to overnight camps with a wind-up camera and  hoped he would take pictures with friends. To her surprise, Goff would return with a film roll full of landscape photos and shots of animals. 

In addition to his fascination with nature, Goff has a “leave a place better than you found it” mentality. He took part in several beach cleanups while completing  bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marine biology at UNC Wilmington. He continued cleanup efforts when he moved to Charlotte with Surf Rider and eventually Charlotte Stormwater. To him, the idea of pulling on waders and dragging trash out of streams was a dream. 

“So, you’re saying I get to climb in a creek in the city, nobody’s going to yell at me, and I get to clean it?” Goff recalled. “This is so cool!”

On the far side of Goff’s office in Woodward Hall is a laminated map of streams in the area from Charlotte Stormwater. Every semester, Goff studies the map for areas that are labeled “inaccessible,” then he jumps in his car, drives around the city and pulls off to the side of the road to see if he can find a path to these creeks.

“I have this dream that I am going to clean every section of creek around this city,” Goff said. “Now is that possible? No way, but it’s a cool idea.” 

Goff is a passionate educator. Whether he’s in the classroom or in a creek bed, Goff builds connections with his students with the hope they can grow from the experiences he provides. 

“Why do we teach? We hope our students take the lessons given, and they run with them,” Goff said. “You never know who you’re going to reach at a time when they are going to take the thing you’re doing and take it even further.”