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Creek Clean-up A Resounding Successby Janie Teague-Urbach Only four days after the unthinkable had happened, on September 15, Butte Environmental Council went ahead with its Fall Bidwell Park and Creeks of Chico Cleanup 2001. All around the world, shock was beginning to wear off, giving way to grief, rage and anxiety. We must let ourselves feel these emotions, so they will not rule us. We need to help ourselves and each other get through this. One of the ways humans get through a crisis is by working at something positive. Last Saturday, almost 200 area citizens worked hard at cleaning up our beautiful Bidwell Park, as well as Little Chico Creek, Big Chico Creek, and some of Lindo Channel and Comanche Creek.
This year, there were a lot of new faces at 9:00 am at Foster's Old Fashioned Freeze parking lot and up at Horseshoe Lake. At both launch sites for the cleanup, people signed in, filled out their prize drawing tickets, ate bagels from Brooklyn Bridge Bagel Works, sipped coffee from Upper Crust and Zucchini & Vine, drank fresh-squeezed orange juice donated that morning by Jamba Juice, put on their sun screen, pulled on their gloves, grabbed ½ liter water bottles provided by Mt. Shasta Spring Water Co. and headed out to fill the bags given us by some of our sponsors, the California Coastal Commission, the City of Chico Parks Dept. and Clean Up the World. We couldn't fly to New York City and volunteer, but we could reach out and literally clean up our own back yard. People from Chico, Berry Creek, Biggs, Oroville, Richvale and elsewhere worked side by side. People as young as two and as old as sixty-something pitched in to help. Little "Daisies", even younger than "Brownies", helped clean up Caper Acres. Hank Marsh Jr. High school kids and their teachers worked on Little Chico Creek, while high schoolers were helping with a large stretches of Big Chico Creek. Some boy scouts cleaned Cedar Grove and Omicron (a CSUC psychology organization), Environmental Advocates, E-ARC, A.S. Recycling, SIFE, and other college students worked up and down Big Chico Creek on and off campus. Town and gown cooperation was alive and well this weekend. The usual suspects were also there, of course. Barbara Vlamis and members of her staff (Rachel Styer & myself), several members of the Board of Directors (Board Chair, Jill Lacefield and Tanya Henrich) and many of the rank and file membership turned out in force. Various organizations, such as Big Chico Creek Watershed Alliance, Little Chico Creek Watershed Group, Streamminders, Butte County Fish and Game Commission, and others were represented and helped get the event off the ground. Several people deserve special mention: Jim Brobeck, Roger Cole, Mark Gailey, Les Gerton, Suzanne Gibbs, Jeanette Hassur, Tanya Henrich, Rob Katz, Paul Maslin, Jeff Mott, Mary Muchowski, Byron Richter, Bob Speer, Anne Stephens, Chris Urbach and others whose faces I know, but not their names. Year in and year out, without them and their knowledge, experience, muscle, and trucks, the cleanups simply wouldn't get done. Creek and Park cleaners met up at 1:30 pm at Hooker Oak Park, won prizes, played ball, relaxed, ate a huge number of pizzas generously donated by Woodstock's manager, Angel Cortez, and munched baby carrots given by the Natural Foods Co-op. We took a well-earned rest because we had filled to overflowing: three 20 yard garbage bins, 2 or 3 scrap metal bins, and about 14 mixed recycling bins full of newspaper, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass, etc. Microwaves, baby strollers, shopping carts and bicycles had emerged from park weeds and creek beds. The goats that used to be in the parks had uncovered long lost trash and treasure: old-fashioned glass bottles (the kind they used to re- use, not recycle), pop-top cans and one lost wedding ring. (If you can describe it, call BEC and you can have it back!) The mainstream media did not choose to cover this outpouring of civic pride and earthy patriotism, but I suspect most people will notice that there are 7.79 fewer TONS of garbage and recyclables in our creeks and our precious Bidwell Park. We'll be back for more in the spring. Join us!
Thanks to all our other sponsors who made this cleanup possible: This column originally appeared September 20, 2001 in the Chico Examiner. |
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