Thursday 26 January 2012

Cleaning up the Mess

I had a chilly walk around Cramond, at the mouth of the River Almond today. The light was stunning and there were loads of oystercatchers around and some other birds too (though not as many as usual).

It was quite littered in places, so I'm glad to know that Cramond is one of the locations in the Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch clean ups this weekend (28 January). They're encouraging people to join in to clean up the mess that is often found on many of our beaches. Joining in is not only a great way to do your bit for conservation but is great exercise and generally a very sociable experience! You can find your nearest event here.


You can also sign up now for the Keep Scotland Beautiful annual Spring Clean campaign. Choose a day between 1 April and 31 May, get together with some friends and set out to clean up the litter in a place near you!


The Water of Leith Conservation Trust is always on the look out for volunteers to help with their annual clean-ups (and with many other tasks!) - you can find out more here.


Meanwhile, a reminder that there is still time to enter the recent giveaway to win kits for making fat cakes for your garden birds. You just need to comment on this post! I'll choose the winners later today! Thanks to Yorkshire Water for providing the prizes!

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

6 comments:

Carol Steel said...

You seem so organized in Scotland about river and beach clean ups. Volunteers are a key component, as is developing a sense of responsibility for the environment. I applaud your unceasing reminders to each of us to do our part, plus more! Hope the clean up crews are plentiful and successful.

Unknown said...

We have a beach clean up here in Chicago on Lake Michigan. I haven't done it yet but I would like to. When I visit the Atlantic or Pacific coasts I am stunned by the amount of trash on them. It is heart breaking. I can't believe what we are doing to our environment.
Thanks for caring enough to do this kind of stewardship.

WildBill said...

Yes, we should all spend some time cleaning up after others who seem to be careless or uneducated about the perils of trashing our environment. I'm glad to hear its not just Americans who are so disrespectful to our planet. Our area has river clean ups but only once a year! Thank you!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Yorkshire water? That's down our way Juliet. With Big Garden Bird Watch coming up this weekend we are rather hoping for chilly weather. If it is too warm then the birds disappear out into the fields. We have such wonderful birds at our feeders on cold days.

Cuby said...

Such a worthwhile voluntary activity but rather saddened it needs to be done at all. Social responsibility should be felt by everyone.It is sad that are those in our society who feel that is quite ok to toss litter about,.hope the crews turn out in force at the weekend.

bunnits said...

We need more groups here to clean up the greenways, etc. More volunteers needed! More than that, the need to educate about reducing littering should be a priority. I have to admit that a huge amount of improvement has taken place since my childhood. The roadways were terribly littered back then. Anti-littering campaigns have helped to clean them up. I think my pet peeve is plastic bags from retailers that always seem to be caught in trees.