Submitted by Keep The Bruce Clean & Green and Peninsula Bruce Trail Club
For hikers, the winter months are usually filled with the excitement of planning for summer hikes on our beloved Bruce Trail.
This year, Peninsula Bruce Trail Club (PBTC) reached out to local partners for a different type of planning – to learn more about litter at Bruce Trail Access hotspots and along the Bruce Trail. During the past year, litter accumulation increased everywhere, including our natural green spaces. We needed partners with litter experience.
It is the valuable work of individuals and our partner organizations – A Greener Future, Bruce Peninsula National Park, Bruce Trail Conservancy, Keep the Bruce Clean & Green, Ontario Parks and Owen Sound Waste Watchers – which helped PBTC blaze the path toward a grassroots pilot project, “Keep the Bruce Trail Clean & Green”. As a partner sharing a common goal, Keep the Bruce Clean & Green approved the project name.
The pilot project has four purposes:
-pick up litter,
-collect and analyze the litter data,
-keep cigarette butts out of landfill,
-and strengthen community messaging about trail etiquette.
Using a Community Science Approach, A Greener Future registers and trains volunteers to safely pick up litter and collect litter data. Some Trail Ambassadors have also taken the training and will contribute their data, too. A data summary will be provided in September.
Currently, trained individual volunteers collect data at two hotspot locations: Little Cove and Lion’s Head Nature Reserve. The project, however, has captured the interest of Bruce Trail lovers from north to south. As a result, you can also participate anywhere along the Bruce Trail and contribute your data after becoming trained.
Monthly Enviro-hikes
Monthly Enviro-hikes are also planned for the summer at Little Cove and Lion’s Head Nature Reserve. A Park Interpreter will lead a free, small group 2 hour Bruce Trail Enviro-hike where you will learn about the local flora and fauna and our fragile ecosystem, and help to take care of the Bruce Trail.
While on your hike you will also pick up litter, help categorize and submit the litter findings for data analysis – “PLIKING”. Following the Enviro-hike, join a Trash Talk Café to share your observations and experience. Pre-registration is required. If interested, contact Peninsula Bruce Trail Club at envirohike@gmail.com
Brenda Stewart is a trained Litter Ambassador and is committed to this project. “Being able to volunteer to help in this project to clean up the litter on the Bruce Trail was a wonderful opportunity and a way for me to give back to the community and help the environment. I have always enjoyed hiking through this Peninsula section of the Trail and this is my way of being able to do something to help keep it clean. I especially love the idea that we are collecting data to hopefully address what kinds of litter are being left and why and be able to make a change going forward.”
Litter Ambassador Jaime Thibodeau says, “I wanted to volunteer for this project because I love nature – being out in the forest, on the trails, or on the water kayaking is such a special feeling. I think of the people and animals who were here before and enjoyed and lived in these spaces, and that it is now our collective responsibility to keep them beautiful and clean. When I found out about A Greener Future it was an easy decision to volunteer and be part of the solution to cleaning up our lakes and trails. I also believe that as people become more educated about the impacts of litter – even a little piece – they would make better choices about how to dispose of their garbage.”
We need volunteers! For information about volunteer registration: www.pbtc.ca under “What’s Happening” or www.agreenerfuture.ca.
Still have questions? Contact: pbtcoutreach@gmail.com
