Back to Work

Last night I was thinking about ending this blog.  You know, things get old and repetitive and you start wondering if you should find something else to entertain yourself with.  I hadn't been picking up trash on my designated mile along the Mississippi River in weeks.  So this morning I went up to have a look.  There was a guy with a guitar at First Bridge Beach to quietly serenade me while I picked up litter.  That was nice.  I found this little message on the sand.  Ok, things are starting out well.

This graffiti is new.  Should it stay or should it go?

 Grabbing clothes out of the water with a stick is always a fun activity.

I am always careful about picking up needles.  I put it in that bottle and capped it.  Should I do something else with it I wonder. You know that Whole Foods bag on the upper right of this picture says "Make your day a whole better".  Ok, I'm starting to feel like somebody's sending me a litter message.

A little further past First Bridge Beach was a patch of what I think is Yellow Loosestrife.  I will have to send a photo off to the Botanical Wanderings Facebook group to verify.  It may be an escapee from someone's garden.

 A little further down the path in the woods by James Rice Playground was a nest of Colt 45 cans.

But all in all it was a productive morning and a reminder that 3 weeks is way too long in between trash walks. Oh, and thanks for that little trashy heart. That was the last thing I picked up.

Two Days, Five Hours

Hello little piece of trash.  You made my day.  I was out picking up trash over the last several days.  Two days exactly and about five hours of work in total.  What can one person accomplish in that time?  Both days I walked the 1 mile West River Parkway route between Hennepin and Plymouth Bridges.

I barely got this sofa cushion stuffed in the park and rec trash barrel.  Onward to First Bridge Beach where a mom and her teenage son were camping.  I tried to pick up around their tent and be as quiet as I could, but you know I've got work to do and it's ten o'clock in the morning.  I should have recommended to them, if they have to sleep out another night, a place a little further up river that is more private with a water fountain and a bathroom.

On June 1st the City of Minneapolis was supposed to start a ban on plastic bags but at the last minute the state overruled it citing it would be problematic for the city to have different rules than the state.
http://www.startribune.com/state-legislature-blocks-plastic-bag-ban-in-minneapolis/425517333/
 The city, by the way, has banned Styrofoam takeout containers and that seems to be working fine.  Anyway, I have mixed feelings about plastic bags because I do use the plastic bags I get at the downtown Target.  I figure that I use each Target bag 2 to 3 times when I am picking up trash before they just get too filthy.

So in five hours I can pick up about a dozen bags of trash.

Bassett Creek has really been stinky this week.  There were probably a dozen or so rotting fish, several other dead animals, and one old dried out muskrat carcass that was as hard as leather.  I was reading an article recently about fireworks disrupting fish and wildlife and it is that time of the year.  We do love our fireworks here.  But the fish are most likely Common Carp and unwanted by the fishermen who just caught them and they get left behind on the bank of the creek.  Like bait, I'm guessing the DNR would prefer that they go in the trash can.

This last month I have been following a facebook group called Take2Miss.  You might think that the name refers to the river, but it is actually the state of Mississippi and specifically a litter problem along the Pearl River.  Like our Mississippi River, the Pearl River is the water source for a part of their state and also empties into the Gulf of Mexico.  And they have a litter problem.  They are planning a large cleanup of all 444 miles of that river this coming September.  So let's see, people on both sides of the river, double that, can one person work all day, no, not likely.....do they need 800 people to truly clean it up?  That's a massive undertaking.  Do they have tires and other large items that will need to come out. More likely it will need to be a yearly project. The importance of this group and the photos of trash is that it documents what a shit show their natural spaces have become.  See for yourself. http://www.take2miss.com/take2miss.html

So good luck folks.  Wish I could join you down there in Mississippi this September.

Shipwreck at First Bridge Beach

It's going to be another hot day here and the storm from a couple of days ago took out our air conditioner.  So off for an early morning walk before it gets too muggy.  I spotted this little tableau at the beach at First Bridge Park near the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.  I always appreciate folks who leave a little scene like this for me to discover on one of my walks along the river.  There is a story here.  There was a man and a small child.  He didn't make it, but the mermaid took the child to the shore who raised it on sushi.  Many years later....

Further along the river at Middle Beach the storm created a big snag of tree trash mixed in with garbage.  The great thing is most of it is easily accessible from the shore.

I'm just going to spend twenty minutes here which is about what I can put in one big bag.

There is always some interesting stuff in the mix of trash.  Cute clog.  That's a handle from a water ski rope.  I'll be back up here next week.  Hope the mermaid is still there next time.

The Journey of the Blue Barrel

A few weeks ago I was down on the beach opposite the Post Office and south of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge and I noticed this blue barrel that was wedged in some tree debris.  I was not going to try to bring it up.  A few days later we had a pretty good storm.

The next day I noticed a blue barrel upstream on the north side of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.  I walked back to the Post Office beach where I saw the first barrel.  Not there.  Ok, it's the same barrel and the wind just moved it against the current.  The power of wind and water.

No, I didn't swim out after it.  It eventually made its way to the beach where other trash floated in as well. It's plastic so no wonder it floated upstream so easily.

I left it in the corner at First Bridge Beach.  Days later when I looked for it people had started using it as a makeshift trash can.  This just confirms my thoughts that we need more trash cans. 

Today I was back over there.  Blue barrel is still in the corner but what you really notice is how the water level is going down. (Compare it to my second photo!)  The area under the Hennepin Bridge is now accessible to me.  The water along the wall is about 2 inches deep and it doesn't take much effort to hop across the rocks that have been exposed.  This was one of those areas that bugged me to no end last spring when I started my obsessive trash cleaning.  I thought I would need a canoe or a rope ladder. Who knew that I just needed to be patient and let nature do its thing.  I hauled out a couple bags of trash but that's not even half of what's there.  There was the usual stuff plus a fishing pole and a Virgin Mary picture frame.  Now that the water is really low you can see that there is a lot of old metal junk laying in the water.  What got dumped here?  I wonder how much of the Mississippi River in other states is like this?

Haircut at First Beach

This gathering spot between the old railroad bridge and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge has no name that I know of.  I've referred to this spot as Debbie Duncan Beach.  In any case it is a place for folks taking a break from work to eat lunch and have a view of the river.  It's a place where old guys gather to sip coffee, read the paper and smoke. It's a spot for exercise groups, a place for folks with cameras and sketchbooks, and folks throwing out a line at night hoping to pull in a few of the giant catfish out there. It is well used but in need of a makeover.

When I took this picture in May 2015 this was typical of what the litter looked like on the beach.  When people see trash they have a tendency to leave theirs there too because well, why bother.  When folks see it clean does it change behaviors?

Maybe a better name for this beach is First Bridge Beach because the Hennepin Bridge there in the distance is considered to be the first bridge that was built over the Mississippi River.  Well, not that bridge exactly but the one that was built in the 1850's.  We are either on our 3rd or 4th bridge in that spot.

 

In the last week or so this stretch of beach got a haircut.  About of 20 to 30 feet of brush was cleared and the shoreline was extended.  I have no idea what the motivation to do this was.  There is a nice bench sitting at the top of the cleared area and maybe it was cleared just to improve the view.  Maybe it was cleared because there were some invasive species of plants in that spot.  Folks who want to fish here have gained some ground.  Whatever the reason I bet that Park and Rec (maybe they did) did not know that this was a favorite spot for homeless folks to hide from the world.  I had been in that thicket a few times and it wasn't so easy to pick up trash in there.  It was always sad to find an abandoned bag that had a few personal items scattered on the ground.  Things that they had received from a shelter like deodorant and a razor.  Empty pill bottles, items that they took with them from a hospital stay, a crumpled up college admission form, dirty clothes. I gathered up 6 or 7 liquor bottles and all the rest of it today so it looks better, but I expect that the thicket just beyond will serve the same purpose soon.