Spring Clean Cayuga!
Embrace the Lake began small scale in 2009 but this year Cayuga Lake Watershed Network invites you and your neighbors to join Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick, the Tompkins County Environmental Council, Alpha Gamma Ro pledges, Newfield Girl Scouts, Scenic Byways and a fast-growing list of others to celebrate Earth Day, April 22nd, with a Lake-wide clean-up!
(You can do your cleanup on April 22nd or any time before mid-May, when the plants are tall enough to hide the trash.)
If small groups of us liberate debris from one place we care about – a stream, lakeshore, sidewalk, front yard, a roadside or drainage ditch – we will make a real difference in our watershed.
We don’t often think of our ditches as part of the water system, but think about how heavy rain washes food containers and other plastic waste into the Lake. Not nice.
To participate, sign up with a message to springcleancayuga@gmail.com.
- Let us know your location, how many in your group, sponsor (if any).
- Put on your gloves and mask, grab a trash bag, have socially distanced fun – and be safe!.
- We take part at our own risk, but if your spot is roadside we will advise on required safety measures (we can supply orange vest)
- Send us photos and videos, and if possible, weigh your take.
- Leave bags and larger trash by a roadside, and let us know the location (springcleancayuga@gmail.com). Local highway departments are helpful in collecting these piles for safe disposal.
Over 40 lbs. of trash was gleaned from the Ithaca City drinking water reservoir last year. Think how much we can collect across the whole community! Cayuga Lake Watershed Network will provide information about the results in May.
Questions welcome springcleancayuga@gmail.com.