Another Great Annual Clean-up

The 2018 Escarpment Project spring clean up was a great success! New strides were made as we teamed with other groups to help get the escarpment cleaned up.

On April 8th we teamed up with Mohawk College’s Student Association and cleaned up the James St Stairs and part of the Red Hill Valley Trail for their ABC Day (A Better Community Day) On April 21st the annual Escarpment Project clean up was superb. We joined forces with Friends of Sheldon Creek in Burlington, a Southern Ontario geocaching club in Grimsby and Friends of Short Hills Park in St Catharines. The weather co-operated perfectly and so did the hundreds of volunteers who again came out to remove all the litter that had been strewn across the escarpment trails, stairs, creeks and waterfall areas. After a couple hours the escarpment floor was once again litter free so that plants and fauna would have an easier time growing and fewer animals would become harmed by the litter. On April 28th we teamed up with Hamilton Geocachers who cleaned up a portion of the beach near Confederation Park.

The best news of the day was that after 7 major escarpment clean ups since 2011 there was actually less garbage. Dumpsters were half full of litter, of mainly smaller items, whereas in the past the dumpsters were over flowing with large items. There were the usual bicycles, shopping carts and smaller pieces of scrap metal but no couches, large appliances or old rusted car parts. We hope this is a positive sign that tells us fewer people are dumping large items and the human footprint is decreasing. Look for new locations to be cleaned this summer and at next year’s annual clean up.

It was disappointing that just days after cleaning the Albion Falls and Oak Knoll area that someone dumped roofing shingles at Oak Knoll Falls. After posting it on social media about 1/2 a dozen volunteers got together on the morning of Saturday April 28th and cleaned it up for the city to haul away.  Thanks to these and all the volunteers who took part in the Annual Escarpment Project Spring Clean up our escarpment is cleaner than it has been in many years.

We will see what next year brings.

Watch the 2018 Clean Up Video:

Escarpment Project Clean-Up Video 2018