Fall Cleanup, October 2011
Matthew Henson Trail site, on Bel Pre Tributary of the Northwest Branch, October 12
Under scattered sprinkles, 75 Barrie School 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and 5 adults hit the trail in groups, armed with bright orange Parks Department bags and blue-palmed gloves. At one site resembling an archaeological dig, they uncovered so many nursery plant pots it was probably a landscaper dump site. Other trash recovered included a beach umbrella.Thanks so much to students, parents, and teachers!
A team of three crosses Bel Pre Creek on their way to gather trash in the floodplain.
The elevated Matthew Henson Trail is in the background.
The elevated Matthew Henson Trail is in the background.
With trash collected, the next step is to get it up onto the trail.
Lifting the trash up to the Matthew Henson boardwalk trail is a teamwork job.
Meanwhile, leader and organizer Rachelle Adams begins digging
in what turns out to be a dumping place for plastic landscaper waste.
in what turns out to be a dumping place for plastic landscaper waste.
And a small snake, unhappily disturbed by the digging, slithers away.
Retrieving water bottles from Bel Pre Creek. Before tossing them, their owners had carefully reattached the caps, perhaps thinking that one piece of litter
would be better than two? Or that the bottles would float better?
Why not use a reusable bottle and save the expense of bottled water?
would be better than two? Or that the bottles would float better?
Why not use a reusable bottle and save the expense of bottled water?
It's a long trek to the trailhead with a heavy load, but the smile says
it's worth it to clean up this trail, close to Barrie School and used by the students.
it's worth it to clean up this trail, close to Barrie School and used by the students.
Who needs a beach umbrella this far from the beach?
Did whoever tossed it ever imagine it would be schoolgirls who would haul it away?
(Just in case one pair of boots is more waterproof than the other,
these two friends share them.)
Did whoever tossed it ever imagine it would be schoolgirls who would haul it away?
(Just in case one pair of boots is more waterproof than the other,
these two friends share them.)
The Barrie students lugged 21 bags of trash to the trailhead which,
along with unbagged trash, weighed a whopping 340 pounds!
along with unbagged trash, weighed a whopping 340 pounds!
But this was not all the trash collected because some parents who helped carried it back to the Barrie Campus along Bel Pre Creek. These two pictures do not capture all the students either, since some raced back for soccer practice. For those students who spent the morning laboring at their PSATs, an afternoon cleaning up the woods and stream was a welcome change.
