Stream team Cleanup MacKenzie Creek – 4/18/2015

We met around 9 am in the morning for this cleanup. I believe it was an event organized by the River Des Peres Watershed Coalition. It had been planned a few months out and had a fair number of volunteers.

CleanupArea
The area in the black rectangle was the focus of our work. Map by Google

At the start, the group was splitting into two. First, a group of people that were set to get very dirty to go down into the creek. There was trash and tires to find and remove. Corvin and Danelle went to this group.

The second group was for people that were not quite ready to get that dirty, that is where Sonora and I ended up along with about 10 high school girls getting service hours. We headed into a small clearing next to a construction site. There we waded ankle deep into trash that was mostly bottles and cups.

IMG_20150418_104058

Cleaning up was hard work that required a break half way through. We sat on railroad tracks. Lucky for us, the railroad shut down the tracks for the duration of the cleanup!

IMG_20150418_104103

Once all the cups were picked up, there were tons of Styrofoam packing peanuts on the ground. Many of us ended up sitting down on the ground and picking them up. It was hard gross work, but the site is significantly improved due to our efforts.

While we were working hard, Corvin found Eric and rode around like a boss with a big smile on his face!

IMG_20150418_103225

Hogan Haake