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Metal harvest: High schooler’s project make a dent in beach litter

Published 9:51 pm Saturday, July 21, 2018

By Ben Boettger

Kenai Parks and Recreation employee Jacob Hart rakes Kenai’s south beach to demonstrate how the magnetic bar hanging behind his rake picks up nails and other metal debris buried under the sand, on Friday, July 20, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. The idea of using a magnetic rake to sweep up metal objects — left after many years of pallet bonfires, lost tent stakes, and general litter — came from Kenai Central High School sophmore Riley Graves, who created a magnetic leaf-rake prototype for this April’s Caring for the Kenai competition. Kenai Public Works Department shop foreman Randy Parrish built the rake after Graves’ idea, which he presented to the Kenai City Council on May 16. Since the July 10 beginning of this summer’s personal use dipnet fishery, Hart said the rake’s been deployed every evening. “When you drive over a dark spot in the sand, where you can tell it’s been a fire pit, you can hear the nails going tink, tink, tink,” he said. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
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Kenai Parks and Recreation employee Jacob Hart rakes Kenai’s south beach to demonstrate how the magnetic bar hanging behind his rake picks up nails and other metal debris buried under the sand, on Friday, July 20, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. The idea of using a magnetic rake to sweep up metal objects — left after many years of pallet bonfires, lost tent stakes, and general litter — came from Kenai Central High School sophmore Riley Graves, who created a magnetic leaf-rake prototype for this April’s Caring for the Kenai competition. Kenai Public Works Department shop foreman Randy Parrish built the rake after Graves’ idea, which he presented to the Kenai City Council on May 16. Since the July 10 beginning of this summer’s personal use dipnet fishery, Hart said the rake’s been deployed every evening. “When you drive over a dark spot in the sand, where you can tell it’s been a fire pit, you can hear the nails going tink, tink, tink,” he said. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)

Kenai Parks and Recreation employee Jacob Hart rakes Kenai’s south beach to demonstrate how the magnetic bar hanging behind his rake picks up nails and other metal debris buried under the sand, on Friday, July 20, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. The idea of using a magnetic rake to sweep up metal objects — left after many years of pallet bonfires, lost tent stakes, and general litter — came from Kenai Central High School sophmore Riley Graves, who created a magnetic leaf-rake prototype for this April’s Caring for the Kenai competition. Kenai Public Works Department shop foreman Randy Parrish built the rake after Graves’ idea, which he presented to the Kenai City Council on May 16. Since the July 10 beginning of this summer’s personal use dipnet fishery, Hart said the rake’s been deployed every evening. “When you drive over a dark spot in the sand, where you can tell it’s been a fire pit, you can hear the nails going tink, tink, tink,” he said. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
A variety of nails, screws, and staples pulled from the sand of Kenai’s south beach are stuck to a magnetic bar hanging behind a Kenai Parks and Recreation Department tractor rake on Friday, July 20, 2018 in Kenai, Alaska. Kenai shop foreman Randy Parrish, who built the adjustable chain suspension system, said the magnet can pick up a nail from eight inches away, making it able to pick up nails buried deep in the sand when hung low. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Parks and Recreation employee Jacob Hart removes nails he picked up from Kenai’s south beach with a magnetic bar mounted behind a tractor rake on Friday, July 20, 2018. Hart has been sweeping the beachs each evening since the July 10 start of the dipnet fishery, using the magnet rake to concentrate on areas where pallet bonfires have occurred. As of Friday, he estimated he’s picked up about 15 pounds of metal debris. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).
Kenai Parks and Recreation employee Jacob Hart removes nails he picked up from Kenai’s south beach with a magnetic bar mounted behind a tractor rake on Friday, July 20, 2018. Hart has been sweeping the beachs each evening since the July 10 start of the dipnet fishery, using the magnet rake to concentrate on areas where pallet bonfires have occurred. As of Friday, he estimated he’s picked up about 15 pounds of metal debris. (Ben Boettger/Peninsula Clarion).

A local teenager’s invention has been put into action cleaning Kenai’s beach.

Since this summer’s personal use dipnet fishery season launched July 10, Kenai Parks and Recreation Department has been using a supersized magnetic rake to sweep up metal objects left on the beach after many years of pallet bonfires, lost tent stakes and littering.

The contraption, which is made of a magnetic bar mounted behind a tractor rake, is based on a magnetic leaf-rake prototype developed by Kenai Central High School sophomore Riley Graves for the Caring for the Kenai competition held in April. Graves won sixth-place at the annual contest, which challenges students to develop conservation projects.

Graves demonstrated the potential of the magnetic rake concept to the Kenai City Council on May 16 by pulling nails from a box of sand.

Based on Graves’ idea, Kenai Public Works Department shop foreman Randy Parrish built an adjustable chain suspension system for a large-scale version of the tool. Parrish said the magnet can pick up a nail from 8 inches away, making it able to pick up nails buried deep in the sand.

Kenai Parks and Recreation employee Jacob Hart has been sweeping the beach nightly since the beginning of the season and estimated he’s picked up about 15 pounds of metal debris.

“When you drive over a dark spot in the sand, where you can tell it’s been a fire pit, you can hear the nails going tink, tink, tink,” he said.

Reach Ben Boettger at bboettger@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.

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