DESOTO COUNTY, FL: A local volunteer group hit the Peace River Sunday to clear trash and debris.

For 16 years, volunteers have met at Nav-A-Gator Grill at Desoto Marina to sweep the river.

This year, The Charlotte Harbor Parrot Head Club and the Boy Scouts pulled hundreds of pounds from the Peace River, which flows into Charlotte Harbor.

"People are just rude, impolite, they have no sense of taking care of the environment," Bob Brandt said. "(I've found) Portable Johns, big pieces of rubber and plastic laying around, 55-gallon drums... And pieces of sheds."

Volunteers took to canoes, kayaks and boats to clean the river. The boy scouts who volunteered Saturday cleaned up 500 pounds of trash, including two metal chairs, two plastic chairs and two tires.

"You don't want (tourists) taking pictures of wildlife with garbage bags in the background," Parrot Head member Karen Powers said. "(This effort) helps clean up some of the stuff that would never bio-degrade."

Oil spill concerns were on the minds of many of the volunteers.

Some said they feel helpless here in Southwest Florida, so they came out to help the environment locally in some capacity.

"We can talk all we went about up toward the Gulf, Louisiana, the panhandle, all of that," Dennis Kirk of the Nav-A-Gator Grill said. "But, what we all need to know is it starts at home."

Charlotte Harbor's Parrot Head Club chapter is the 2nd largest in the state of Florida.

They will be meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, at Coral Rock Cafe in Port Charlotte to "party with a purpose" and discuss the club's oil response plan.

By Paul Gessler and NBC-2.com