DENTON COUNTY SPOTLIGHT
CLEAR O
TEXAS by Mark Miller | photos courtesy of Don Gaston
ne day while fishing on the western shore of Lake Lewisville shortly after moving to the area from California, Don Gaston couldn’t help but notice all the trash accumulating around the lake shore.
“Where I was at was not indicative of the entire lake, but there are certain places where there’s a lot of trash
— especially where I like to fish.” the Lantana resident said. “The second time I went out there, I decided to
take a garbage bag and clean it up. I also noticed the trash collects in
10 | FLOWER MOUND TOWN LIFE | OCTOBER 2021
areas only accessible by boat, and it got me thinking it was going to take more than a walk around the lake to clean it up properly.” When he later snagged what turned out to be a slipper shoe instead of a fish, he decided to take it a step further. After much research and
due diligence, he launched a 501(c)3 non-profit organization called Clear Texas Lakes, a full-scale lake clean-up initiative dedicated to the continuous removal of trash and debris from Texas lake shorelines.
Gaston learned no one organization formally is in charge of cleaning Texas lakes, nor is there a budget within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In fact, Corps officials indicated he was the first person to ask about developing such a program. He also came across the Texas Department of Transportation’s long-running Don’t Mess with Texas campaign but found it pertained to roads and highways only. He wanted to create something like this for the area lake shores, and as a new retiree, he was looking to do something meaningful and fun. So far, everything is paying off as he recently received a memorandum of understanding from the Corps to do his good work. “It’s a simple concept,” Gaston said, “It’s not necessarily a ‘green’ thing it’s a ‘clean’ thing. You see trash, you pick it up, you throw it in a garbage can. “We are unique in that our cleanup effort is continuous rather than periodical. The www.LiveLocalMagazines.com
