Cleaning Up the Creek!

In my last post, Detroit police were "concerned" about, er, pillow litter. Well, here's some real litter concerns for ya!

Yesterday, I had 5 friends over and we cleaned up around the main road that crosses the creek just at the edge of the Grove. After all, I am River Guardian.

People in cars enjoy tossing plastic drink bottles, beer bottles and other evidence of our throwaway, consumer culture right into the creek. Others wander through and find a nice spot to drink--but can't seem to carry out what they carried in.

Here's some photos of the yucky trash caught in the creek. We worked pretty fast and I didn't take many photos, and it was great to have friends over to help. I've been wanting to do some cleaning for a while. We collected 7 bags total, which doesn't sound like much, but it was about all we could reach. I tried to get a long-handle pool skimmer for the trash in the middle of the creek but couldn't find one. A small fishing net did come in handy.

There was still trash left when we stopped, and we all wanted to do more. Next time, we'll have to bring canoes and waders! But at least we left the creek better than when we found it!

I was especially glad to see some folks I didn't recognize farther up the road doing their part. We waved and gave a thumbs-up. They might be neighbors-and those are the kind of neighbors I want to have. And please, dispose of your trash and recyclables properly!