Volunteers clear litter along the Little River corridor

The CodeGreen group from Caesars Windsor chose to clean up the Twin Oaks Parkland site again. The Little River flows north through this site in East Windsor. This location is immediately south of E. C. Row Expressway, east of Lauzon Parkway and north of the Canadian Pacific Railroad tracks. Plans were made to cleanup on Tuesday, 4 April, however Mother Nature made other arrangements. Gina Pannunzio wrote:

 

“The Little River Cleanup scheduled for this evening has been cancelled due to inclement weather and poor site conditions. The entire area is under 2 feet (60 centimetres) of water at the moment, and it would be difficult to collect litter due to how muddy and wet the ground is. We are likely going to reschedule the cleanup for next Tuesday, April 11th 2017 from 5pm to 7pm and will follow-up with those details as soon as they are confirmed with our other partners. If you are able to attend next week, please let me know and we can count you in for dinner.”

 

On Tuesday, 11 April, over 50 volunteers participated in the cleanup event. Mother Nature cooperated this time: mix of sun and cloud (mostly cloud), with daytime temps at 18 C, wind southwest 20 km/ h and gusting to 50 (wind chill)! Overall, a wonderful day for a cleanup. Our eager volunteers cleaned up from 5 to 7:00 p.m. This was the 6th time community volunteers have cleaned up rubbish from the Twin Oaks area.

 

Along with the CodeGreen group, there were volunteers from the City of Windsor, the Detroit River Canadian Cleanup Committee, Computers for Kids, Essex County Nature and the Little River Enhancement Group. This vigorous working group collected an impressive pile of garbage. The parkland looks a lot better because of our efforts.

 

Asphalt roofing shingles;

Automobile floor mats, plastic bumper and grill and tires;

Bags of litter (several);

Basketball net, post and base;

Carpet;

Computer;

Concrete sidewalk pieces;

Industrial conveyor belt;

Landscaping cloth;

Patio stones;

Plastic items: bottles, jugs, toolbox, garden sprayer, flower planter and pails;

Plywood pieces and other construction wood;

Railroad ties;

Shopping cart;

Snowmobile rubber track;

Swimming pool ladder, coping and hose;

Wood fence posts with concrete base;

Wood pallets

 

We always try to record our wildlife sightings as well: Turkey Vulture, Mallard Ducks (nesting), Eastern Cottontail, baby mole, American Robin, Mourning Dove, family of mice, Canada Goose pair and an unidentified frog that jumped into the standing water of a wheel rut.

 

Our partnership appreciates CodeGreenfor mobilizing their volunteers and helping to coordinating this cleanup event. They have expressed an interest to clean up the Hawthorne site again in the autumn. We look forward to working with them in the future. Also, we would like to express a big thank you to the City of Windsor/ Parks Division for hauling the garbage away; placing the cement barriers and assisting our group with the cleanup. Together, our partnership will endeavour to create a natural area that will improve the ecosystem health of the Little River and Detroit River Watersheds.

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Event report written by Ian Naisbitt, the President of Little River Enhancement Group and the Chair of the Education and Public Involvement Group with the DRCC.