On this Earth Day (as most Earth Days) I’m given to a little pondering on the state of affairs in my little corner of the world.
The other day, on the front page of our local newspaper (or “gossip rag” to some) blared a headline about one of our city councillors railing against the increased level of illegal dumping of garbage in our ravines and wild places.

While I have seen a fair bit of garbage dumped in places when I have gone on a few little hikes in close proximity to my neighbourhood, I have yet to take garbage bags and litter “picker-uppers” with me (as a beginner, it’s enough that I carry a camera and a water bottle); as I get more used to hiking, I will carry the aforementioned with me.

The cynical side of me wonders what this councillor, with his jacked-up, heavily-customized, gas-guzzling, blacked out pick-up truck (not very Earth friendly, that) is trying to accomplish? I have never heard of him before our most recent election. He is an ex-cop, with a heavily accented French-Canadian accent, and wears enough cologne that one can taste it. Now, I am not trying to downplay his contributions to cleaning up our community; however, we do have city employees that can (and should) clean up illegal garbage dumps within our city limits as part of their duties.

I would also like to point out that not only do people dump garbage into our ravines and wild places, I have also seen divisions of people’s ornamental plants, grass clippings, leaf rakings, and fruit fall tossed into the bush as well.

None of these occur naturally in nature; your ornamental Day Lilies, Hostas, Peonies, what-have-you, do not belong in the wild. If you are blessed with an over-abundance of such plants, either knock on the door of that plant obsessed neighbour and ask if they would like a few free plants, pot them up and sell them for a few dollars, or place them curbside with a sign – “free plants help yourself”.

As for grass clippings and leaf rakings, I have seen in a small trailer park, a large compost box specifically created just for these offerings. For those gardeners that are keen to get as much free compostings as possible, but have limited room, this is a Gift. I would like to see at every ravine site and wild place within city limits that people discard their grass clippings and leaf rakings, large composting bins for this purpose. If they get over-full, the city can send out a truck and collect it to use for their own composting needs.

Fruit fall….Le Sigh. If you are going to have fruit trees or shrubs on your property, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO MAINTAIN AND HARVEST YOUR FRUIT. If you have far more fruit than you could ever possibly hope to consume, share your bounty with your neighbours, members of your extended family, or the local food bank. If you are unable to harvest your fruit at the appropriate time, look into giving a local gleaning group a call; they will be happy to take care of your “fruitful abundance”, and make quite a few people happy in the process. If however, you are a lazy, anti-social slug, do everyone (and the local wildlife) a favour and remove the damned tree and plant something else more suited to your tastes. (Cactus comes to mind).

For far too many years, this small town has had an “All Me, All The Time” attitude; it is time to grow up, realize the World really doesn’t care about you, and stop shitting in your own back yard.