Pet Peeves #1

Littering.

There, done.

Okay, I'll write a bit more than that. There is a beautiful conservation area not too far from home called Rockwood (just east of Guelph). This park is used for camping, canoeing, swimming, caving, hiking, and many other activities. Camp Rock was even filmed there. And yet, despite the fact, or maybe because of the fact, that it is used and enjoyed by so many people - it is full of garbage. When the glaciers receded, they left behind these natural formations called potholes. Potholes can be a few feet or hundreds of feet in diameter; always a perfect circle. And the visitors to Rockwood use these potholes as receptacles for pop cans, cigarette packages, granola bar wrappers, and even diapers.

Here's another example: Algonquin. Beautiful, raw nature. Untouched, unspoilt wilderness. If, that is, you overlook the cigarette butts. Campers who are otherwise scrupulous about keeping the site clean and removing all garbage, will ignore the cigarette butts they've tossed here and there.

We've made drinking and driving socially unacceptable. I realize that littering is not a matter of life and death, and that perhaps it shouldn't be compared to driving while intoxicated. The point I'm trying to make is that we've used positive peer pressure to discourage our friends and family from drinking and driving; so can't we use this same peer pressure to discourage them from littering? It would make for a much prettier world.

As for the folks at Rockwood - maybe you could put a garbage can or two at the beginning and ends of the trails. And maybe you could contact an area school and ask them to "adopt" the park - then they could rack up volunteer hours by cleaning out the potholes.

Is this rant a valid complaint, or am I off my beam?