Rivercleaning, Campus Style

What a difference at yesterday's river cleanup, versus last week's! And scenery was the least of it.

I teamed up with a professor from the Earth Sciences dept., his son, and an undergrad accounting student to clean a section of the bank behind an appartment complex just off campus. The bank was steep, muddy, heavily wooded...and filthy. In this stretch of maybe 300 yards or so, my group found more than 200 beer bottles, numerous pieces of furniture, CD's, utensils, plastic cups, and too many scraps of paper and plastic to count. Some of the interesting finds I made were several vases, all in one spot, and a home pregnancy test (too degraded to see the result). One clearing in the woods was filled with clear plastic cups--which we understood when we looked at the appartment behind us and saw a keg standing out on a balcony on the second floor, and tubing for a beer bong threaded through the balcony's grating. Another group found a box of 1000 spark plugs dumped along the river. I think the foursome I was with accumulated double the trash that my group on the Au Sable did over a much longer stretch of stream.

The Toledo cleanup was also more hazardous. We didn't have to wade, but, as I said, the banks were steep and muddly, and if that wasn't enough, there were railroad ties with long, rusty protruding nails jackstrawed all over the place. They originally had been put there to reinforce the bank, but had since eroded out and fallen into decay. Some you could safely walk on, others would crumble at the slightest pressure. Fallen sticks covered much of the ground, and since it had been raining, they were slick and apt to make you slip if you stepped on them. The other cleaners and I took a few spills, but no one was hurt. Of course, there was poison ivy everywhere. Another 24 hours or so should tell if it got me. At the start of the cleanup, we were required to sign liability waivers. That was curious to me, as I had never had to at other cleanups, but I could understand why once we started cleaning our beat.

Still, I was glad to be there. Today Kristine and I will be working on the porch again, which may make yesterday's labors seem like a holiday.