Escapees March-April 2019 Vol 40 Issue 5

Different Viewpoints

  From our cottage in Vermont, we can walk in any of the five directions from our driveway. Most every morning, my husband, Larry, and I walk a mile out and back on one of the roads and pick up trash along the way. The money we get from the beer and soda can deposits pays our bag fee for leaving the trash at our local transfer station. Sometimes we fill two to four plastic gro- cery bags in one morning. We have found money, stamps, a baby crib, a gun with heroin and paraphernalia for grinding and bagging the heroin (we called a state trooper who came and got that from us), a college student’s lost wallet, a wood splitting maul, a credit card at the end of a person’s driveway (she didn’t even know it was missing) and more. We have had strangers stop and thank us for picking up the trash. It feels good to be appreciated, but we do it only because we like to keep Vermont beautiful.   

                                                                                        In 2015, we spent a few months at the Savanac Historic Tree Nursery mowing grass, maintaining historic buildings from the CCC days, picking up trash on trails and watering and weeding seedlings planted by the students in the local schools. We found volunteering allowed us to learn the history of an area far better than a simple camping trip would. We were hooked and went on to volunteering at national parks, state parks, US Fish and Wildlife refuges and a privately owned and operated logging and forestry museum in Maine. When not at a volunteer site, we pick

“There is still litter out there, and I know we can’t pick up all of it. However, every piece we do pick up… is one less in view, in the food chain and in the oceans.”

up trash at rest stops and lunch breaks along the road. We post our pictures of the collected bounty on the Facebook page started by friends of ours, Airstreamers Clean Up America. As we travel, we picked up the unsightly litter, which removed plastics from streams, rivers and the ocean. Cans no longer attracted birds or rodents, plastic rings no longer threatened wildlife and sea turtles can thrive without plastic shopping bags imitating a food source. But more important, it is our interactions with visitors, where we can discuss the evils of litter, feeding wildlife and allowing nature to remain unspoiled, that magnifies our results. There is still litter out there, and I know we can’t pick up all of it. However, every piece we do pick up and dispose of properly is one less in view, in the food chain and in the oceans.   

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                                                                       

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