The Clean Waterfalls project

Without sounding cliche, on the anniversary of Earth Day 2010, I decided to begin a little project to clean a little part of the world.  Waterfalls are some of the most beautiful areas that nature has given us, kind of like a jewel in the wilderness.  Why not keep treating it that way?  Well, often times, when venturing in the outdoors, we see exactly the opposite.  As an area becomes more public, it means more visitors and sometimes sadly, more garbage.  Usually without a 'park' designation, whether national or provincial, a wilderness area is left up to local groups to keep the area clean.  This is beyond the expectation that everyone should be keeping the woods clean. 

From today on, I'm issuing a challenge to all the waterfall seekers out there. Bring a trash bag with you and pack out some garbage on your trip.  And to everyone else, lets keep the universal hiking motto in mind, "Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints." 

Feel free to post a comment on a falls area that you visited and cleaned up.  Areas that need attention beyond a single visit are also worthy of mention.  I'd encourage anyone to link to before and after clean-up photos if you wish.

Lets get to work on keeping our treasured environment as it should be.

Comments

[Dave]

The first day was Moss Glen falls area. I carted out about 25 bottles and cans from the area.

[danielle sawada]

went to cutie's hollow on mother's day with five teenagers. it was wet, buggy and sooooooo worth the effort. next time i will take some loppers and clear the trail a bit. we spent most of the time hiking in a crouched position. we collected up four sobey's bags of assorted garbage.

[Dave]

Danielle, great work! 4 Sobeys bags is a tremendous amount of garbage. Those falls are a beautiful hideaway in the summer.

[David]

Kris and I collected bottles and garbage totalling a big blue garbage bag from Wards, North River, Hidden Falls & Harrington Falls.

There was a special surprise from one can we picked up, it was unopened and looked, tasted fresh. :)

http://macdonald.typepad.com/Soft%20Focus%20Beer.jpg

[Dave]

We spent about an hour cleaning up broken glass (grr) from the area around Wallace Falls in NB. Carrying all that glass out was quite the challenge.

[Rutty Tuyor]

"Take nothing but pictures and MEMORIES, leave nothing but footprints." sounds good, too. This is a very bright idea, Dave. Waterfalls deserve to be treated right by keeping the surroundings clean. I wonder how many hikers and/or tourist have kept this in mind.