by Lisa Wallace, Executive Director
Yesterday evening on my street, a man was running along with a bottle of water. I was stunned to see him drain the bottle and throw it into the willows that line the road.
I said, “Hey, please don’t do that.”
He looked at me with complete surprise and said, “What?” It was as if he didn’t understand what ‘that’ was. His view of the world seemed to be that there are two kinds of stuff… his and not-his. At some sub-conscious level he was thinking the street wasn’t his so it was okay to throw trash.
The challenge we have in a world of shared – and increasingly scarce – resources is that some people persist in acting like the resources belong to someone else. When they throw trash in the Truckee River, go 4-wheeling through Carpenter Meadows, or bulldoze the banks of Summit Creek, it’s as if they’re doing it to somebody else’s place, or to “The Man,” or some faceless bureaucrat.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. And many times it isn’t.
Dedicated volunteers and professionals from all walks of life – like our Weed Warriors – teach people that this is ours and it’s worth taking care of and they teach us that people like us care for places like the Truckee River, Trout Creek, Alder Creek, Bennett Flat Meadow, and Euer Valley.
If you’re reading this post, you are one of the people who take care of our places – please join our Weed Warriors this Saturday as they demonstrate “This is Ours” by identifying the noxious weeds that harm our native habitat. Join the Weed Warriors as they say “This place belongs to all of us and it’s worth taking care of.”
Photo: Musk Thistle, a nonnative, invasive weed located along the Truckee River, credit: Maxine Rix.