North Bay boy collects thousands of pounds of trash from Petaluma river

PETALUMA, Calif. (KGO) -- More than 2,000 pounds of syringes, TV monitors, tires, tennis balls, bottles, and cans have been removed from the Petaluma River Tuesday, all thanks to a young North Bay boy who decided he wanted to make the waterway a little bit cleaner.

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DJ Woodbury is only 12 years old, but he could be Petaluma's youngest environmental hero. After school, he searches for trash.

He's found 18 syringes since he and his dad David Woodbury started fishing on the Petaluma River.

"We thought, 'This won't take long to clean up,' Woodbury said. "We were very wrong."

The first weekend it was quite a haul -- so much debris it filled up several trash cans. Some weird stuff was found floating, like a TV monitor and more.

Three months later there's a grand total. "We have collected 2,215 pounds of trash," Woodbury said.

That massive cleanup has now become DJ's class project at Live Oak Charter School. Some of his classmates don't get it.

Woodbury's father David, a retired marine biologist, is proud. "People are emailing us, great job. It's inspiring others, there's lots of rivers in the Bay Area."

DJ has no plans to stop his trash pickup but can't help but feel alone on his quest. "It's nice to pick up trash," Woodbury told ABC7 News. "Not many people do it, they don't want to get motivated. Who wants to pick up trash -- it's gross.

Woodbury and his father will go to next week's city council meeting to talk trash and look for solutions on keeping this waterway clean.