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‘Dawn Patrol’ tackles litter along Juneau’s busy thoroughfares
- Klas Stolpe
- 10 hours ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 3 minutes ago
Michael Clemens picks up after daily commuters
By Klas Stolpe
Juneau Independent
In the early morning hours, under a heavy fog, a lone dot of color moves along the Egan Drive median.
Unnoticeable on the horizon to commuters, unless they are close up, Mike Clemens, 78, is in a zone. His plastic white bucket is nearly full of the discarded odds and ends of those who seem to care little about where they dispose of their trash.
“Careful,” he says. “That car doesn’t have his headlights on. I don’t think drivers realize that headlights are so we can see them, just as much as they can see us.”
For over 10 years, Clemens, “blessed with three children, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren” — a fact he casually mentions as car headlights whiz out of the fog — has been the caretaker of the ditches and medians, a thankless task rewarded by the occasional thank you from a passerby.
“One morning, a city worker stopped to thank me for cleaning up and mentioned that there was a bag of garbage on Egan Drive, but I would have to be careful if I went to get it,” Clemens said. “I did and was. That encouraged me.”
At that time Clemens was mostly in the Mendenhall Valley, where the managers at McDonald's and Safeway allowed him to use their garbage cans to deposit trash, refuse items that often seemed to come from their establishments.
“Later, I learned about the yellow bags available from DOT/PF and began using them,” Clemens said. “Since they were periodically picked up by maintenance and operations staff most mornings.”
Clemens’ habit of picking up stuff goes way back.
“As a kid spending summers with my maternal grandma on a farm outside Naselle, Washington, I made money by picking up bottles tossed out of cars along the highway near an adjacent tavern,” he said. “Helping my older brother with his Sunday morning Oregonian paper route put me out on the streets early where you found stuff by looking down…I have always disliked litter and if in a position to remove it, would pick it up and deposit it in the nearest garbage can. In recent years, the desire to recycle cans and bottles made sense to me, since people often throw them out of their vehicles. It seems a shame to have trash along our highways when tourists come to see nature’s beauty. Back when driving around the Lower 48 years ago, it was common to see roadside trash; why couldn’t Juneau’s main roads be cleaner?”
Clemens, who retired from “administrative work with the state in 2004, unrelated to trash,” became a hardcore trash remover when the 2017 Year of Kindness (YOK) was initiated by now-retired Juneau Police Department Lt. Kris Sell. Clemens had been focusing more on Riverside Drive and the Mendenhall Loop Road, the heavily traveled paths of tour buses on their way to the glacier.
“I think I had been working some mornings prior to that, but the areawide emphasis helped me realize that clean-up efforts matter,” he said. “For several years (roughly 2017-2021), I worked early mornings during the longest days when Egan Drive traffic is almost non-existent to make it safer for me in the median strip...For a couple years I stopped, but then did some ‘patrols’ in 2025 and resumed this year…I remember one time when I almost caused an accident, which made me take a break from patrols.”
Now he tries to coordinate his efforts with others involved in areawide cleanups.
“I’m just one person and cannot handle large areas all by myself,” he said. “Thus, I try to supplement and complement efforts of groups working to raise funds or provide community service due to various requirements…Sometimes, big messes will get my attention, and I’ll stop to tackle them, if possible, when there’s no traffic on Egan Drive, since some places don’t have room to pull off the roadway. Thus, a quick stop is only safe when there’s no traffic headed in the direction I’m working.”
On this particular morning, the back of his silver 2007 Subaru Forester, his base of operations, is parked on one of several safe spots along Egan’s median, where he sorts his gatherings into the yellow ALPAR bags for state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities workers to pick up.
“They fit nicely into a former kitchen garbage container I use along the roadside,” Clemens said. “Over time, it dawned on me that having a place to deposit my bags and other stuff in one place would be best, and the pull-off on outbound Egan Drive at the McNugget intersection works. Due to the traffic lights, it creates a safe area for me to pull back into traffic and allows the DOT/PF workers a relatively safe place to park as they pick up what I’ve deposited over days. At times, when pulling over for a short stop, I’ll activate my vehicle’s hazard lights for visibility.”
The Juneau Independent asked Clemens a series of questions to be answered at his leisure.
Q: What areas do you concentrate on?
A: From their bus seats, tourists have plenty to see while driving in from their cruise ship docks, but in some places, the only things they see are roadside areas, which ideally should be relatively clean. Egan Drive between Loop Road and Fred Meyer seems to have lots of trash, so I would often start there, depending on the level of trash in other areas. Gradually working toward town, I would concentrate on the worst areas and stop for the biggest messes, like plastic packaging…DOT/PF used to mow the Egan Drive median a couple of times each summer so I would try to patrol before they mowed trash into little pieces, which of course are much harder to pick up. With all the deep gashes in the Egan Drive median strip, I imagine that mowing will be tougher this year. The mowing equipment can be damaged by solid metal trash that ends up in the grass.
Q: What interesting treasures or disgusting things have you found?
A: Money (mostly $1s, but up to $50 bills), tools, knives, driver’s licenses, wallets with cash, IDs, credit cards, parking permits, and even the apparent results of a Switzer Creek Trailer Park burglary (several personal items were clustered as if they were tossed out the window while driving outbound Egan, so I arranged to return them). I would turn in driver’s licenses and wallets to JPD, including an Oregon wallet with $42 in cash in August 2024…Years ago, working Riverside Drive, I would routinely find an empty pint glass bottle of the same brand of liquor, as if the consumer had a recurring habit of tossing it out before they turned into their subdivision where their home was located. This person was a serial litterbug….Damaged electronics (e.g. iPads, smartphones) end up at Dan’s Recycling instead of garbage…Dead deer and porcupines sadden me, since they were hit when trying to cross Egan Drive.
Q: Most common garbage?
A: There are basically three types of material that end up along roads: 1) items tossed out on purpose (like beverage containers), 2) items that accidentally “fell off a truck” so to speak, and 3) vehicle stuff. Fender benders result in lots of broken plastic car parts that end up in the median or outside the guardrail and would be chewed up by the industrial mowers used by DOT/PF. In the past, I’ve seen the results, for example, of a Home Depot orange bucket shredded into pieces. Wiper blades and wheel weights end up in the median and near the guardrails…Most beverage containers can be recycled, except for paper cups. But empties are sometimes accompanied by full bottles or cans that presumably were tossed out by accident. Empty cigarette packages are common, but almost full packages are clearly tossed out by accident….Convenience food packaging ends up tossed out along with, surprisingly, medical gloves…Items that accidentally fall off a truck include lumber and items that are en route (to) the local landfill. Once last year, I encountered an industrial-sized box of orange earplugs along with some electrical sleeves that appeared in the Egan Drive outbound median near the seasonal speed limit sign. My recycling contact was able to repurpose such items; he knows people who know people.
Q: What does the debris amount tell you about people?
A: As an amateur roadside anthropologist, I’ve kept no long-term statistics about trash I’ve gathered and make no conclusions. If it were allowed to accumulate throughout a full season, some items would become self-evident, like where trash comes off vehicles as they pull onto Egan Drive from slower speeds on side roads. Thus, predictable piles would accumulate in certain areas.
Q: Equipment used?
A: My preferred containers are two square buckets that I carry in one hand, which allows my other hand to use my green Nifty Nabber purchased from Western Auto, which sells two sizes (I have both). Further, I have a long claw that allows me to grab plastic blown into water-filled areas adjacent to some parts of Egan Drive. Climbing over the guardrails is becoming more challenging, so I will just grab what I can reach. The water sides of Egan Drive often accumulates trash I cannot reach, so later in the season, I work that side of the guardrail so I don’t have to climb over and can stay on the safe side of the guardrail, critical during traffic.
Q: Attire and gear?
A: High visibility orange is my preferred color (Oregon State) rather than fluorescent green (Oregon), so I have a hard hat, heavy jacket, raincoat and lightweight vest to try to be seen by drivers. In the colder weather, I start off with the jacket and then shift to the vest once I get warm enough, and then sometimes switch back when the wind comes up to cool me off. Footwear is critical, since moving along the median and down steep slopes can be challenging, but when I’m patrolling flatter areas, regular low-cut shoes provide adequate support. Gloves get wet, so I carry several pairs and often wear two kinds at the same time to keep my hands warm. As the day gets warmer, I partially unzip my coveralls to keep from overheating, a major cause of fatigue.
Q: Recycling tips?
A: Aluminum, plastic and glass containers are often tossed out car windows. I group them together during pickup, and then clean and separate them for recycling. Many bottles, for example, have their lids on which should be removed before depositing at the Recycling Center, which also wants clean items, so I try to clean what I deposit and throw away dirty items. Since I recycle for some friends, it’s just another trip to the Recycling Center when headed to Costco.
Q: Best weather?
A: Daylight is the obvious factor, since I need to be seen on Egan Drive to be safe, and fog is the most dangerous condition, since some drivers don’t use their headlights in fog, when low beams would work fine. Cars going by create wind, which cools me off and keeps bugs away later in the season. Bugs can be so bad near the wetlands that I won’t work in that area.
Q: Stamina tips?
A: Since I turn 80 at the end of next year, I’m often running low on energy and need to take a day off or quit earlier than I might like. Generally, I like to be off Egan and leaving that day’s bags at the McNugget intersection pulloff by about 6:30 or before. So when the days are longest, that gives me three full hours to work, but sometimes the energy level is just not there. But since one purpose of my picking up trash is to improve my physical health, I try to keep pushing my level of effort as I approach the “use it or lose it” stage of life. Physical exercise, I’m told, will also combat the brain fog that happens more with greater frequency as I age.
Q: What about fish and wildlife?
A: I don’t handle dead critters, birds or fish, and have encountered quite a few as well as their live cousins (black bears, deer, porcupines, eagles and fish, in season). When I see a dead deer, I’ve called JPD before since I think they coordinate with someone to pick them up.
Q: Final thoughts for Juneau residents?
A: Please carry litter bags in your vehicle rather than toss things out the window and having your headlights on will help your vehicle be seen in the early morning hours. If you’re taking material to the local landfill, ensure that nothing will fly off into traffic or end up on the roadside…If you happen to be a walker, think about carrying a plastic bag to collect trash you encounter, since every litter bit helps. But when you do find trash, if you don’t have a grabber of some sort to extend your reach, bend down using your legs, not your back.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at sports@juneauindependent.com
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