Jordan River Cleanup

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Submitted by John Lee on Sun, 11/13/2005 - 7:11pm.

Following Peter Corroon's trip to pick up trash in October, Jen Colby invited us to help the Great Salt Lakekeeper clean up floating pollution on the Jordan River north of 1700N. We collected hundreds of pounds of drink bottles, beer cans, construction foam, shoes and sandals, a go cart, a birth certificate, toys, tennis balls (so that's where they go), soccer balls, basket balls, Styrofoam cups, a fire extinguisher (what did I leave out)...

Here's Jen heading out looking for trash (in the cannoe out front):

And my team swiping debris out of strainers:

It was a nice day in spite of awful smells. We felt that we were doing good in the face of a struggle that seems almost insurmountable.

Kinda like being a Democrat in Utah I guess!

John Lee's blog »

Thanks, John!

#73 On Sun, 11/13/2005 8:47pm emoticon said,

thanks to you and Jen and others for doing such good work!
And I love the way you write! Ever thought of posting a blog???

sheryl :)

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Most of life is just showing up

#74 On Sun, 11/13/2005 10:20pm rootstock said,

John,

It was great to work with you and the team today. Given the short notice and the marginal-appearing weather this morning, we had a good turnout and got a lot of work done. It was certainly my kind of Sunday service, reflecting on our place on this fragile little planet, celebrating unique communities, human and wild, and experiencing a different kind of baptism (yeah for soap and hot showers).

Now that I think about it, if all SL valley church-based baptisms were held in the Jordan, old-style, the river water quality might look a whole lot different.

Water quality notwithstanding, it's remarkable to glide into the water there at 1700 N Redwood and enter a different world. Thanks to my boat companion, master canoeist and professional ornithologist Brian, I glimpsed belted kingfishers, flickers, a barn owl, a sharpie (sharpshinned hawk), and a weasel (long-tailed?). Our party also saved a trapped, desperate, exhausted magpie from the evils of wayward monofilament fishing line.

I offer a poem of gratitude, courtesy of Wendell Berry:

February 2, 1968

In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.

[Collected Poems 1957-1982; Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1964]

namaste,

Jen

PS thank you, Jeff Salt, Saltlakekeeper, for your dedication, energy, and passion for the river and our watershed

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