This was a clean-up I had been wanting to do all summer. It is dedicated to Stephen Kacir a friend and supporter of this project that passed earlier this year. Kacir was an avid birder, herpetological enthusiast, scientist and an all around good person. He was the first person since I started this project to ask me to clean up specific sites. He cared about the parks in his area where he would go bird watching and wanted to see something done about their condition. At the beginning of the year I did make it to Riverfront Park, the one Kacir told me was in the worst shape. Jeffrey Greco and I did a pretty thorough job of cleaning up the park then and I knew by this point in the year it would most likely be just as bad again. I didn't want to do just a small park clean-up though. I looked at some maps and decided to do an eight and a half mile paddle from the last dam on the Perkiomen Creek to Riverfront Park on the Schuylkill River. I hope to make this an annual clean-up in honor of Kacir and in coming years I will be asking for help from others. This time I did not know what to expect and ran it alone. The above photo is where I launched on the Perkiomen Creek. Before I set out I cleaned up around the dam and as you can see from the pile on shore in front of the canoe there was a good amount of trash there.
As you can see I didn't get far before I had my first large item. It looked like someone had made a fort on the island right below the dam out of this large tarp. Removed it and an assortment of recyclables from the island then started my trip down the Perkiomen Creek.
With water levels low everywhere I have been lately I didn't know how much walking I would have to do before I made it to the Schuylkill. Luckily there were only a few shallow sections on the Perkiomen and most of the float on the creek was like the above.
Most of the trash I pulled off of the Perkiomen was found like this. After the dam and the island I did not find all that much on the banks.
This is where the Perkiomen joins the Schuylkill River. If you click and enlarge the photo you may be able to see the Bald Eagle in flight at the top of the tree line on the right.
Spotted this TV shell lodged in a strainer. It was really wedged in and at first I wasn't sure I was going to be able to remove it. Right after this I went to get a bottle that was behind some overhanging vines next to the bank. I started to use my paddle to fish the bottle out from the vines and almost immediately I was surrounded by wasps. I received a couple stings and left the area in a hurry. I was not able to retrieve the bottle before I got out of there. I never like leaving trash behind, but this was still the start of the trip and I had enough stings already.
In previous posts I have shown photos of parasitoid wasps. This is a photo of an unlucky caterpillar that a parasitoid wasp laid eggs inside of. The eggs hatch inside the caterpillar and the larvae eat away at the host. Eventually they emerge from the host and pupate. The white objects on the caterpillar are the pupa.
On my regular river trips with my kayak this car seat would be a piece that I would have to leave behind. With the canoe I was able to load it right up and take it down the river.
Could see this item from a distance, wasn't sure what it was though. Upon closer inspection I still didn't know. It looks like a base to something, anyone have any clue to what it went to or what it held up?
What a way to paddle. The canoe was starting to fill up and I still had miles to go.
This is one of my favorite photos of the trip. In the background is a Belted Kingfisher flying, on the log is a Cormorant and flying towards the log is a Green Heron. All are common along the river, but hardly ever could I get all three into one frame.
From this perspective it is hard to imagine being so close to larger cities. In some of the sections I paddled through, the only reminder that there are other people around is the trash found on the river banks.
This young Common Merganser didn't mind me floating by. Its siblings swam further down the bank, but it stayed on the rock and posed for a photo.
In the long strait sections of river I wasn't finding too much on the banks. Above is a chunk of foam on the left and a river beer I plucked from the water on the right.
The strainers I came across did have a lot of trash. The problem here was the amount of aquatic vegetation that they had also caught. Some trash items I couldn't reach just because I couldn't paddle through the duckweed and other debris.
I had been taking the right side of the river, until I got to a somewhat large island. There I took the left channel and found more items caught in strainers and calm water between them.
I passed below a bridge under construction and it seemed as soon as I did the amount of trash on the riverside greatly increased. The wasn't much of a current past that point and that could be the contributing factor for all that I was finding.
Getting close to Riverfront Park, this Osprey flew overhead. It looked to be scanning the water for a meal. I didn't get to see it dive, but it came in close for this shot.
With the canoe nearly full, I didn't know if I should make anymore stops for larger items. Then I noticed this kids basketball hoop and I had to make the stop. After this I definitely couldn't take any larger stuff.
This Great Blue Heron was surrounded by trash on his perch. I didn't want to disturb him and I don't think I could have paddled through to get to the trash anyhow. There was only one clear channel where it looked like larger boats may have passed through so I took that and had to ignore that trash I saw floating in the duckweed.
This was a surprise. I can't determine the species from this photo, I can tell it is a type of Map Turtle and one that is not native to Pennsylvania. We do have native Map Turtle species, but in this case there are characteristics of this ones carapace that tell me it is not from PA.
Not far after the last Map Turtle, I found another basking with a Red-Eared Slider. Again I can't determine the species of this Map Turtle, yet I know it is different from the previous one.
After passing by a lot of trash in the duckweed I had to try for some. I paddled as hard as I could into it in the direction of the trash. Going through it was like slowly applying breaks to the canoe. I was able to make it to a few items and I couldn't go any further. Had to back paddle out to the open channel.
Not far from Philadelphia this was not a surprising find. Second eagle of the day, I preferred the first. Once passed the islands of duckweed I collected more smaller items from both sides of the river before bringing the canoe into the launch.
I was glad to be at the end. I don't think I could have picked up much more and the canoe was getting difficult to paddle.
I do think Stephen Kacir would have been happy with this haul and with all the birds I saw along the trip. After I put all of the non-recyclables next to trash cans furthest from the river I did do a small walk around a portion of the park and collected more trash until my ride arrived. Several park visitors came up to me while I was there and thanked me for the clean-up. I made sure to tell them about Kacir and let them know he is the one that needed to be thanked. This may be my last visit to Riverfront Park this year, I will return though. I understand why Kacir cared about this park. It is a window to the wild right in the middle of a city.
I would like to give a special thanks to Joe Greco for picking me up at the end of the trip and to Andrew Curtis for letting me borrow a canoe! The help is much appreciated and hopefully the both of you can go along on this trip next year!
You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash
