TRAVERSE CITY — Keeping the water and beaches in Grand Traverse County clean is a big task, but fortunately The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay now has some help.
The Center was able to get two autonomous drones through support from the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup Program with Meijer and The Council of the Great Lakes Region.
BeBot and PixieDrone help scour the beach and bays looking for debris. The Center has been able to take the robots to several sites around the area to see what kind of debris is ending up on the beach and in the water, which will help them raise awareness about the problem.
“This equipment is a really great educational tool. If we are out with a big robot, people will come up to us and ask us what we’re doing. It gives us an opportunity to talk to people about what the issue is, see what kinds of things they might be able to do to help prevent plastic and things from getting into the water,” said Christine Crissman, executive director.
The Watershed Center says the two major types of debris they’re seeing are plastic fragments and cigarette butts.