Big+Sweep+and+Stream+Watch+at+Richland+Creek



This past Saturday on December 2, 2017 I went on Loblolly Trail in Umstead Park to clean it through the Umstead Coalition and we cleaned up trash. Our first stop was E. Stephen Stroud Way at the PNC Arena and as we waited for everyone to arrive we walked around there and picked up some trash around there. We then traveled to our true destination and found a little stream with tons of trash. (First Picture) We used metal grabbers, a fishing net and farm tools to collect as much trash as we could. It was difficult due to the fact that this was a very deep stream and we didn't have any boots. So we could only gather the closest trash to us and that made our jobs a lot harder. Our guide sat on the big log that's in the picture and pretty much fished as much trash as she could reach out onto the shore and we put them in bags. This method worked for a while but it was ineffective in it's progress.

We then moved along a trail composed of sediment and found a little bit more trash but this trash was easier to access. Where we were located (in the first and third picture) we were standing in an area that is regularly flooded whenever we have heavy rain. This flooding gathers all the trash from the PNC arena, the Fairgrounds and other surrounding areas and deposits it here. This is also where the large bodies of sediment are from as well. On the other side of this is a stream that feeds into Crabtree Creek and all of the trash surrounding that is collected by a grass damn along the edge of it. This experience taught me how far trash we litters go and how big of an effect on the environment it has.