Five Mile Creek in Jefferson County just got a little cleaner after volunteers pulled an estimated 500 tires from the waterway around the small town of Brookside.

More than 100 people from multiple organizations, including the Alabama Power Service Organization, took part in the 11th annual Five Mile Creek Greenway volunteer cleanup. This year’s event, which focused on getting tires out of the creek, was organized by the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership and the Jefferson County Health Department’s Watershed Protection Division.

“It all started in Brookside,” said the city’s longtime mayor, Roger McCondichie, who hosted the very first volunteer cleanup in his city in 2004. Since then, Brookside has created a recreational haven along its section of the creek that includes a camping area, walking trails, canoe put-ins and enhanced historic sites.

Visitors can even rent canoes from the city-operated Five Mile Creek Canoe Company and enjoy an afternoon outing on the creek.

Francesca Gross, executive director of the Five Mile Creek Greenway Partnership, said the event would not have been as successful without the help of so many organizations, including the other municipalities who are partnership members. They are the cities of Center Point, Graysville, Tarrant, Fultondale, Gardendale and Birmingham, as well as Jefferson County. They have joined forces with local nonprofits and others to promote and develop the greenway, a network of parks, trails and historic attractions that will eventually stretch 28 miles along the creek.

The Five Mile Creek Greenway is part of the swiftly developing Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System, a longterm plan to create a network of 250 miles of greenways and trails and 500 miles of sidewalks and bike lanes across Jefferson County. In the first two years since the plan was unveiled, some 30 miles of trails have been completed.

To learn more about the Five Mile Creek Greenway, visit www.fivemilecreekgreenwaydistrict.org. For details about the Red Rock Ridge and Valley System, visit www.redrocktrail.org.