This past weekend I participated in the 22nd annual Trinity River Trash Bash. For the Trash Bash, the city is divided into seven different sections. Groups, families and individuals can choose any one location to volunteer to pick up trash along the banks. Several hundred people sign up for each location and make quick work of picking up a mountain of trash. Our marketing coordinator, Elizabeth, found a barrel floating on the bank and got the nod for biggest piece of trash collected!
Most of the trash we gathered consisted of plastic drink bottles and fast food wrappings. It gets there via the storm water drainage system, which starts at the curb of the street. If a plastic bottle is in the curb in front of your house, and no one picks it up, it ends up in the Trinity. Another drainage system—the sanitary drainage system—carries the waste water from your home to the waste water treatment plant, where it is treated and then dumped into the Trinity River.
The green belt created by the Trinity River flood plain is a wonderful playground. There are many awesome parks like Gateway Park and River Legacy that offer miles of paved and unpaved biking and hiking trails. The wildlife is abundant; I have personally seen turkeys, bobcats, fox, and more recently, wild pigs. The river bottoms are a sanctuary for migrating birds in the winter months.
The river bottoms offer a great spot for nature photography. I took the picture of the sunrise sunlight exploding off the glass building and sending a fireball off the water the morning after the trash bash. It sure was nice not to have to Photoshop trash out of it.
To learn more about the Trash Bash, click here http://www.trwd.com/trinitytrashbash/
To learn more about the Trinity River wildlife and the rich history of the river, a visit to the River Legacy Science Center is a must, http://www.riverlegacy.org/
Have you heard of the Panther Island Project? It’s a plan to create an urban waterfront community just north of downtown Fort Worth by redirecting the Trinity to form an island. http://www.trinityrivervision.org/projects/panther-island
Please join me and the Medford Remodeling Team in the effort to keep the Trinity clean and thriving by keeping the trash off the streets and volunteering and participating in events to benefit the wellbeing of the Trinity River.
Thanks!
Mike
