It was a cold and windy evening this past Tuesday as committed Surfrider Volunteers made the trek around North Portland cleaning up or local bioswales. We had a solid crew of six volunteers as we made the rounds near North Williams and Martin Luther King Blvd.
The Green Streets Stewardship Program is a program of the City of Portland that gets volunteer groups out in the community, cleaning up their neighborhoods, and local bioswales. Bioswales replace traditional stormdrains but instead allow stormwater to be cleaned by the plants in the bioswale. The stormwater then percolates into the ground instead of flushing through our stormwater system and eventually into local streams and rivers.
"Green Streets volunteering is alot of fun, says volunteer Al Maslowski. "Its a chance to help out my neighborhood, hang out with friends, and have alot of fun on a Tuesday night." Walking around as a big group there are alot of laughs and stories, as we pick up trash along the way.
This month we collected 15 very packed gallons of waste along the way. That was the most we've picked up in our five months of Green Streets work thus far. The most interesting thing we found was a six sided dye. It was laying 5-side up, if that means anything!
Find out more about Green Streets and get involved by contacting our volunteer coordinator, here.
Jocelyn, Ian and Eric cleaning things up!
Thanks to Ian, Jocelyn, Eric, Damion and Al for helping clean up our 'swales and streets!