As citizens of the city of parks, we are entitled to take great pride in the diversity of our parks. They benefit users in many ways, from walkers, joggers, bird lovers to plain stress relief, but as beautiful as our urban forests appear, there are heaps of garbage accumulated in there over the years and everyone seems to believe that it is someone else’s problem.
I am on a mission, focusing my efforts on the south end of Green Timbers Urban Forest, where I have collected well over a ton of garbage this spring alone and lost 25 pounds in the process. I have plenty more trash left in there to keep me busy for the summer.
It is not even hard. Most people could do it. Go for a stroll in any of our parks with two standard-size garbage bags. Make a big pile where it makes sense and report it to the city.
The main trails may only have smoking debris like cigarette butts and plastic wraps, pop cans and such, but the small side trails often take me to abandoned campsites, leftover party artifacts, forgotten stolen goods, or evidence of wire stripping made by petty thieves leaving piles of plastics in creeks and ponds without a care for salmonids, ducks, raccoons, frogs or chickadees. Our forests need your help beyond Earth Day.
Marcel Larouche