An interesting morning to be sure. Unlike the CA watershed cleanup i took part in about 8 months ago, this event was scantily attended. The whole State of Oregon is celebrating its sesquicentennial anniversary of statehood this year, and this event is among the ways 150's being celebrated throughout it. Supposedly there were crews all over the state cleaning up trash and working on other improvement projects such as invasive plant removal/abatement and trail maintenance along with trash pickup, removal, & disposal, which was what our task was. If all the sites were as poorly attended as the one i went to, i'm not sure Oregon is incredibly cleaner than it was May 15. Still, we gathered several bags' worth of trash per person and a few miscellaneous large items such as large iron pieces of...?, wooden pallets, rusty wire, and other odds & ends. Boats went up and down the river gathering the bags and piles to discard them onto a trash barge and probably from thence into a landfill someplace. So I suppose we made a decent dent in the refuse after all. I ended up having to leave the site early due to puncturing my right index finger on a nasty looking rusty cable i was yanking out (!). I even had a thick work glove on, but nonetheless whatever sharpness was on the cable went through both glove and skin. I was worried about infection, but after prayer and cleaning & applying hydrogen peroxide & isopropyl alcohol, i'm pleased to report that my finger is miraculously healed! It did not look good at first and i thought maybe i'd have to go to the doctor, but it's looking great now. Some other pieces of good news are that i got two excellent green-colored Oregon 150 / Down By The Riverside tote bags and as i was on my way back downriver to leave i discovered a geocache! There was not really anything exceptionally superb in the cache for the taking, so i just left a shell in there and dated & signed my handle. Admittedly i was sad not to be able to volunteer with the crew tossing trash onto boats and zooming to and fro atop the river, but perhaps some other time my (free)boating dreams will come true. Some other good things that came out of the event include: a peaceful walk along the waterfront; some interesting interactions with the SOLV workers on site; watching the girl scouts "pick up trash" and "see who can gather the most" :) and then seeing their mostly empty bags adorn the lawn while they run around the picnic tables screaming and laughing; scouting out nice places to take my wonderful wife and perhaps other guests; the discovery of an amusement park; watching a crew speedily and gracefully row by; these photographs:
Sellwood Bridge over (not-so-troubled) waters.
Daytime moon barely visible in top right?
Waterfront homes! I immediately thought they were houseboats--and perhaps some of them are--but after closer inspection i presume they're somewhat permanently stationed there. Either way, plush!
Looking north toward downtown Portland. The clear Portland sky was the limit as was its glassy reflection below. Perhaps you can see what used to be a wooden pier judging by the dilapidated pylons to the right.
Much of the group working with the pretty neat SOLV plastic bags made from recycled material. I am standing on this crazy floating plastic container dock.
1 comments:
Looks fun! Except for the rusty cable bit. Ow!
One thing to consider is that Oregon has a much smaller population than Southern California, which could account for the sparse number of volunteers. I wonder if the event was purposefully named in honor of the great Neil Young song.
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