When you think of conservation work, restoring habitats, or surveying wildlife, or conducting prescribed burns might immediately come to mind. But what about the work that’s a bit less dazzling? One important effort is cleaning up roadside garbage—much of which is completely preventable.
On March 21, volunteers and staff filled nine big bags with trash and seven five-gallon buckets with recyclables from 1.9 miles of roadsides in and around Goose Pond Sanctuary.
The cleanup team with several bags of trash collected on March 21, 2024 (photo by Mark Martin).
We mostly found the usual suspects: beer cans, mini alcohol shooters, packaging from fast food, and plastic bags. There was also styrofoam, a diaper, golf balls (there is a running joke that every natural area in existence has at least one golf ball), and more. Some of the material was likely accidentally littered, but unfortunately, most roadside trash is intentional.
The UFO (photo by Mark Martin).
Highway I was the worst, and with recent strong west winds, garbage was blown far into the prairies. Mark was walking in the Wood Family Prairie picking up scattered bags and saw a UFO to the north, about 50 yards above the ground. He could tell it was not a bird, but there were also Ring-billed Gulls flying in the area. Winds were very light, and the object would turn and appear pure white when it caught the sunlight. After a couple of minutes it landed nearby. One wonders where this four by five inch piece of styrofoam came from.
Eggshells (photo by Mark Martin)
Because some of the Wood Family Prairie was burned last fall white or light-colored objects contrast sharply with the dark soil. Larger bird nests from the previous couple of years were fairly easy to locate since egg shells are not consumed by the fire. Mark was pleased to find six Mallard or Ring-necked Pheasant nests despite having only walked a small amount of the 10-acre burn unit.
While picking up litter along Goose Pond Road we also did an eBird report and the highlights were 700 Canada Geese and 110 Tundra Swans on the very dry pond.
Thanks to Robyn Weis and Mark and Jenny McGinley for attending this volunteer day at Goose Pond. Though picking up litter isn’t terribly glamorous work, it’s still very important—it keeps the prairies looking good, prevents harm to wildlife, and ensures that we will not burn plastics during our prescribed fires.
Written by Mark Martin, Goose Pond sanctuary manager; Emma Raasch, Goose Pond ecological restoration technician; and Graham Steinhauer, Goose Pond land steward
