Healthy Rivers Lead to Healthy Communities

Yesterday was CREEC’s 2nd annual Crow River Clean Up, and we couldn’t be more thankful to all of those who volunteered to spend their Saturday afternoon with us. By the end of the day, we had 50 people help us collect over 100 lbs. of trash.

As great as these clean-up days are and how satisfying it feels to have collected that much garbage, that’s still 100 lbs. of waste that was sitting in or floating on the river. Additionally, organizations like CREEC generally host 2 or 3 days like this a year. And unfortunately, these types of events can only do so much.

The cleanliness of rivers, and the overall natural environment, isn’t something that should only have our undivided attention a couple of times a year. It needs to consist of daily actions that will have positive impacts on all aspects of a community.

That’s why we want to provide a few different ways in which they can make conscious decisions to contribute to a cleaner Crow. After all, we believe that a healthy river is a healthy community.

Keep Up on Car Maintenance

Most of us have seen the oil spots on our garage floors or in our driveways due to our leaky cars. As annoying or pesky it feels to you, imagine what it’s like when that same oil gets into water sources due to runoffs. In the simplest of terms, plants stop growing, fish start to die off, and the overall ecosystem takes a big hit. By conducting routine car check-ups, you can help avoid these nasty oil leaks; not only does this save you money, but also helps keep our rivers clean.

Avoid Using Harsh Chemicals

Come summer time, we know it’s tempting to want to have beautiful, green, weed-free lawns. However, we want to point out the fact that often times the chemicals used to achieve the “dream lawn” can cause a lot of harm to the surrounding environment. The reasoning behind this is that when it rains, the chemicals are washed off the lawn and enter the sewer systems, along with all the rain water. These chemicals can be especially harmful to rivers and lakes, since most city and neighborhood runoffs lead straight to these types of water sources. Therefore, it is strongly encouraged to purchase natural fertilizers, or better yet, avoid using them altogether.

Don’t Litter

We realize that this should be a no-brainer, but it’s surprising at how many people still seem to “miss” the trashcan when disposing of their garbage. Additionally, we’ve noticed that it can be hard for some people to realize that if they litter far away from a river or lake, there’s a high possibility of the garbage still finding its way there. Litter is displeasing to the eye, is harmful to the fish and other animals that are a part of a river’s ecosystem, and not to mention illegal. All we ask is for you to take the time to find the proper garbage or recycling bin, so that next time we don’t have to be excited about cleaning up 100 lbs. of waster from our river’s waters.