Cleaning litter on my dog walk

I couldn’t do it.  I could not walk my dog and not pick up litter, once it is daylight and I can see it.  It is too painful not to pick it up; I started this as a hobby years ago, while walking my dog, for just this reason.  It’s a compulsion.  I can’t wait for my weekly litter walk around the neighborhood; it bothers me too much.

The doctor told me to double my aerobic walking time in the morning, so I started walking the whole river trail from the end of Spruce, doubling back at the west end, and walking back to my house on Greenwood, trying to ignore the trash along the neighborhood streets, and only pick up along the river trail where it was light.  But it was too long a walk, and it was too painful to walk the neighborhood and not pick up litter, which would take longer still.  At this point, I excepted parking lots in the park for the same reason: because it was too concentrated there and slows me down too much. 

The Harry and David Shelter

But the parking lot and the Harry and David Shelter at the west end of the trail bugged me.  After a few weeks of this, I had to start picking them up.  But doing a lot of stoop work around the shelter only ticks me off, when I’m without my litter grabber.  I don’t mind bending once in a while, but shelters and parking lots have way too much little litter after weekend parties. So I decided to start demonstrating the power of daily cleaning and adopt the shelter area and its parking lot.

I started driving my dog and my tools to the west end of the river walk trail in the Reinhart Volunteer Park, walking the whole trail to the dog park to throw balls, and walking Brownell and through the middle of the park on the way back to my truck, picking up litter along the way.  Walking the river trail every day and visiting riverfront destinations, litter doesn’t build up that much, and I can maintain an aerobic pace, with occasional squats for litter.  

A funny thing happened in the meantime.  My neighborhood became less littered than the river walk, and indeed, less littered than before.  After nine days between neighborhood litter walks, I was walking at a good pace and not seeing much to pick up last Sunday.  Even the problem properties didn’t have much litter.  It seems as though using my sign while working the neighborhood is making an impression. 

Litter wasn't bad, but this is bad at Spruce and Bridge.  Code forbids grass clippings on pavement.

Indeed, as I was picking up litter on a street I rarely clean up, but had 9 days before, the resident there said, “Ricky, we didn’t do that.  It blew in.” 

“It has been windy,” I replied.  “A copy of the latest?” I asked, as I handed him a leaflet that he was happy to accept.

 Rocks on Heather near Spruce, now cleaned up

That day, since things were going so well, I cleaned up a bunch of rocks along Heather, where three out of four yards on one stretch have 1 ½” rock along their frontages.  The rocks have been knocked into the street over the years: black crushed basalt on the corner; grey crushed granite on the next, and grey river rock on the last.  I hate rocks underfoot.  Until lately, I only kicked them down the road.  Now I clean them off the road.

Likewise, when I am at the dog park, I pick up rocks while throwing balls for Petey, gathering them in a litter bag and then dropping them in a dog-dug hole or at the base of a tree.  I twisted my ankle on a rock in a customer’s yard a few years ago; I have moved them ever since. 

It’s very rocky soil; they constantly wash out of the dirt, and will until the grass grows in thicker, which it won’t until it is mulched a bit.  Spreading compost last fall did wonders for the grass outside the fence this winter.  Too bad most of it is seasonal, but an inch or so of yard mulch (composted yard waste, fairly light and fluffy) from Southern Oregon Compost would do wonders for the evergreen perennial grass inside the fence.  Mulch can be a bit messy in a heavily used dog park, but I think we can deal with it through the winter.  The soil is clay silt; it needs organic matter lighten it and feed worms, which love clay.

While the neighborhood was cleaner than usual, it is almost summer, and the riverfront is now the focus of both residents and vagrants.  Two days ago, I cleaned up three bags of trash along the river, as well as a grocery bag full of returnables.  I had to stop leaving returnables in my big yellow litter bags because someone was dumping the bags in the trash cans I put them next to (as instructed) in order to find them.  So now I keep them separate and label the bags “Trash only – no returns.”  So far, so good.

While on my Sunday litter walk, I had an urge to visit the only river camping spot along the route, even though I’d been there the day before.  Sure enough, I found a camp being set up again, with afghans hung for privacy, and scattered litter. 

I’ve also been finding camps being set up in the Harry and David shelter area under the younger evergreens that have branches close to the ground.  People broke off incense cedar branches and hung them in the trees for screens in one place and stuck them in the ground in another.  Following a path broken by the mower I found a third place where big fir branches had been gathered and set up in a lean-to, and two furniture-moving blankets were in a pile nearby.

We all own public property like city parks, and they are there for all to use.  Claiming a personal piece of it by leaving one’s stuff there sullies the view and restricts others in their use of it.  But we are free to clean up the messes left by others.  I reclaim public property for me and you by doing just that.