Photo: Wendy Wolak
Once Thanksgiving weekend is over, the fall tidying gets into full swing for cottagers and year-round residents alike. This month members of Carson Trout Lepine & Greenan Lakes Association (CTLG) participated in an autumn clean-up in the Valley. Shown above from left: Al Best, Danielle Paul, Roger Paul, Doug Beingessner, Dave Hudder.
CTLG members have expressed concern about the amount of littering in the Valley since before the association began in 2017. Many individual members are in the habit of collecting litter when they are out for walks and CTLG participated in Pitch-In Canada Week in Madawaska Valley last spring. At the association’s AGM this year, committed volunteers signed up to help reduce the amount of litter beside some Valley roads. As a result, CTLG then entered into an Adopt-A-Road agreement with the County of Renfrew for a section of a county-maintained road. County personnel provided safety training, signage, hi-visibility vests, gloves and garbage bags to CTLG members and the crew held its first garbage patrol on August 7, just before the association’s Adopt-A-Road signs went up. The association is waiting for Ministry approval of its application to enter into a similar scheme elsewhere in Madawaska Valley.
The highlight of that first anti-littering day was Dave Hudder and Angelo Mosca finding a snake bagged in the recycling. One regret expressed by the clean-up crew was that a picture was not taken of the truckload of garbage and recycling they gathered in August. So the CTLG anti-litter crew doing the final tidy of the year kept a tally:
- Beer bottles 63
- Water bottles 40
- Pop cans 52
- Tim’ s coffee cups 5
- Plus a tire, dirty diapers, bike, furnace filter, anti freeze bottle, ice cream container, and the usual candy wrappers and fast food foam packaging.
While the crew picked up far fewer items compared to the August clean-up, the question must be asked: Why do we need to do this at all? Why do thoughtless people continue to litter our environment?
Please, people – don’t litter. Dispose of your waste conscientiously!