It's hard to see here, as this was at about sunset and things were getting dark, but there are various bits of litter floating in the water.
Last year, we had record rainfall in our state. A creek that ran through the back of the subdivision I used to live in flooded far over its banks -- at least a 20 foot radius of the creek was covered in water. Thankfully, the houses were built on a hill so that those that backed up to the creek were not flooded. Unfortunately, this creek, which had been thriving with life, including many turtle, geese, ducks, fish, and various water plants, became also flooded with litter which had washed off of the roads and sidewalks, into the drainage ditch, and eventually into the creek, polluting the water and making things difficult for wildlife. You can see just a small portion of the damage in these photos I snapped:
It's hard to see here, as this was at about sunset and things were getting dark, but there are various bits of litter floating in the water.
This definitely is not a very pretty sight. A big plastic bucket floating through the water. Yuck!
Blech! I wish people would throw out there own trash -- or in this case, much of this could be recycled! There were recycling bins in public parts of the neighborhood, and they were utilized. This trash generally came from the busy street that the creek crossed under.
Just get that bucket out of the way and then it would be a froggy paradise!
EEEEEEEEEEEW!
I really hate those wrappers. Those are even easier to throw out than water bottles -- you can stick it in a pocket until you find a trash bin, at least. It's kind of icky, but it's easy!
The red mud that gets all over litter when it gets dumped just makes things harder.
Wal-Mart, please stop selling those darn Cheetos! Or Doritos...or whatever they are! Just kidding, but just like little children can suffocate when you leave a plastic bag with them, so could an animal!
This situations looks pretty dire. Thankfully, my brother got very worried about the creek creatures and went out and collected all the litter while I captured this photos for him and helped find the trash. My brother and I used to clean up the giant park that was nearby us when we lived in Oregon, and we still try to do it where we live now. Once the litter was collected, the wildlife seemed very happy. They could be seen very often swimming about. We saw them when there was trash, too, but every time we looked we were quite worried until the mess was cleaned.
This should be pretty obvious -- if you're here, I'm sure you know! I'll explain, though, just to review. Make sure that you hold on to your waste somehow until there is some way of disposing it, or even recycling it if possible! Mainly places have very high littering fines -- often at least $1,000!!! It definitely pays to save your trash for the bin.
If there is a lot of trash in your neighborhood and you're worrying about the wildlife, put on some gloves, grab a trash bag, and clean it up a bit whenever you have some free time. If your community pays for you to recycle more, then this is a great way to rack up the weight of your recycling bin! Also, schools, churches, and other places like that often collect newspapers and magazines to recycle and get money for. You can give them the stray newspaper sheets you find. Or, if you find a large some of metal, you can sell that, since metal prices are so high nowadays!