The story in the Bee today about the annual Parkway clean-up is a sad reminder of the original mission of the American River Parkway Foundation, the organization managing the annual clean-up.
Their founding mission was to raise funds to acquire additional land, as it became available, to increase the Parkway.
This was a visionary and vital mission, particularly in this era of large house-building along the Parkway creating a sharp visual intrusion to our sanctuary.
Their founding mission is even more vitally necessary today.
But, unfortunately, at some point during the past several years they dropped that mission and became a clean-up organization.
Clean-up is certainly needed, particularly in the Parkway's Lower Reach area, where the clean-up crew will be encountering syringes, human waste, and illegal campgrounds inhabited by very territorial and often hostile campers, (so be careful out there); but once-a-year clean-up is not at all as important as strengthening the Parkway through targeted land acquisition, which could benefit the Parkway forever.
Here is the story and a link.
Greenbelt cleanup volunteers are talking trash
They'll turn out in force on Saturday to keep parkway pristine.
By Bill Lindelof -- Bee Staff WriterPublished 2:15 am PDT Thursday, September 15, 2005
The slap of a beaver's tail breaking the stillness of a morning, the swoop of a hawk through cottonwood trees colored yellow by autumn.
That's the picture of the 23-mile American River Parkway that emerges for many.
After a summer of use, the urban parkway also is home to discarded car batteries, cigarette butts flattened next to picnic tables and beer cans on beaches.
For the rest of the story: http://www.sacbee.com/content/community_news/arden_carmichael/story/13562842p-14403354c.html
