Green Lane Park (21-Feb-2016)

Took a drive south to Montgomery County to see some friends today. Since I was in the area, I spent a couple hours at Green Lane Park taking out trash. Last year in March I cleaned up the same area I first stopped at on this trip. I was happy to see that there wasn't as much trash this time around. 

One of the first bottles I picked up was this unopened Sunkist. I wish I could go back in time and just see how this ended up there. What scenario happened that caused this unused item to end up where it did? Was it dropped accidentally or was it intentionally thrown out a window. If I only knew the story behind some of these things.

This section of the park is cut off from the rest. It is only a small area, with a small gravel pull off, but it is great for watching waterfowl. It even has this nice bird blind on the bank. While I was there the only other people that visited this section were birders, both with spotting scopes in hand. 

 

For most birders, what was on this section of dammed up creek was probably nothing all that special. For me two out of the three duck species were rare sites. The one I hadn't even seen before. I know the ducks in these photos are very small, you can click the photo to see it enlarged. On the left is a Ring-Necked Duck, I have only seen Ring-Necks a few times. The one on the left is a Gadwall, this was what I had never come across before and added to my life list. 

Same old trash, always the same old trash. I picked up about half from this spot along the creekside and half along the road that parallels the creek.

I could see a lot of activity in the main portion of the park and I thought with a lot of activity would come more trash. So, I decided to drive over to the other side. 

Before driving over I sorted out what I had already collected to separate the recyclables from garbage. 

By the main office I ran into a Park Ranger out and I asked him if there were any areas in the park that needed to be cleaned. He informed me that they had a number of workers out that keep the area clean and around the office that did look true. With that in mind I went with where I knew there would be trash and started following the Perkiomen Creek downstream. Streamsides are often overlooked and almost always have trash. 

There weren't as many items as the other side, but the trash was still constant along the bank.

Take a good look at this photo. Do you see the problem I do? Styrofoam and plastics do break down into smaller pieces over time, but they don't go away. Think about the impact these small items can have on our environment. 

Not far down the trail I started noticing signs of beavers. I never did see a lodge, yet there was clear recent activity in the area. On the left is a tree that wad gnawed on not that long ago. I found it interesting that the beavers completely ignored the Poison Ivy vine and just chewed around it. On the right are a couple beaver prints and you can see the smoothed out mud that its tail dragged across.

Only one lure, several bunches of fishing line. This park even has the line drop off tubes at different places. If only people used them.

The second pile of the day. With both trash and recycling cans around the main office of the park I dropped everything off before I left. So these items, except for the cans, won't be included in my next recycling day count. That was all I had time for, I will be back to this area again this spring!

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

Have any suggestions of sites in eastern PA that you would like to see cleaned? Send me an e-mail at jrb2765@gmail.com and I will try to get to it this spring!