Rivers Alive Service Outreach

Lauren Rose Wilkes Rivers Alive Service Outreach

At Rivers Alive, I spent three hours going to a local watershed and picking up trash around the area. We were given gloves, trash bags, and grabbers to clean up the MLK greenway. At the entire event, I would guess there were around 100 people, and there were probably 20 people at my specific location. I expected there would be a significant number of people there, and I expected there would be a little bit of trash around to pick up.
My expectations were both exceeded and not met. Overall, the experience was pretty harrowing. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were there. I was expecting only around 25, but there were at least a hundred people there to pick up trash. This was definitely encouraging to see that so many people cared about the environment. I was especially excited that so many people cared enough to come volunteer on a Saturday. I was not pleasantly surprised by how much trash there was around. Especially because it was a relatively empty greenway, I was astounded by how much trash was there. I even found a water bottle full of pee that someone had left by the side of the highway. I could not believe people would so willingly litter by this waterway. There was trash both by the highway and lower into the waterway. This angered me as well because it seemed that people really had no regard for the nature around them and littered without even thinking about it.
This experience was very informative. Although I have volunteered for similar experiences in the past, volunteering after learning specifically about waterways really contextualized the problem. This pollution affects not only the immediate surroundings, but it can also have significant impacts later on down the line in other ecosystems connected to this waterway. Learning about this in class made the problem seem that much more serious and therefore made the service seem that much more important. From this experience, I learned a little bit more about what skills it will require to organize and participate in one of these service trips in the future. I lacked the knowledge on exactly what to pick up as well as the logistics on what exactly was important to watch out for and pay attention to. What I learned from this only proved how important it is to pay attention to littering, especially around greenways. Seeing how much trash there was only re-emphasized my previous ideas.
Because of this experience, I will try to actively participate in more service activities like this. I will also try to advocate for less littering overall. I will also monitor my habits and try to influence those around me to ensure that they know the harm that comes from littering. These just showed me how much people do not take littering seriously. The diversity of trash I found in that waterway proved that it is all types of people contributing to this pollution, and thus cannot be solved simply by holding industries accountable, but only by holding everyone accountable. In the future, I will use what I learned from this experience to participate in more rivers alive projects. In addition, I will attempt to spread the message about this issue. I can also apply this to other classes like my FYOS, which focuses on watersheds in Georgia.

Watershed Reflection- David Wang

In this picture, I see a storm drain with the number 229 next to it. I notice a “no dumping” sign, which struck me because the sign made me wonder where the water that the storm drain catches goes to. As a result, this picture makes me think about the watershed that the captured water ends up at, and whether dumping any sort of water would harm the watershed and the environment in some sort of way. This makes me think that others would also interpret the “no dumping” sign as a measure to protect the designated watershed. Overall, this picture makes me feel curious about the impact of all the storm drains on the environment, and I think this storm drain picture is about the impact of man-made structures on watersheds.

Watershed Reflection – Mary Catherine Meno

In this picture I see a discarded tire by the Lily Branch stream, surrounded by natural growth. I noticed that the tire was fairly close to the water, not just off in the trees, and because there were plants growing out of the tire I could tell it had been there for a while. Seeing this here makes me think about how careless we can be with our possessions, tossing them to the side when we’re done with them. Looking at it, I am disappointed in the human race for ruining a naturally beautiful and clean water source. I think this picture is about people not caring for the nature around them and not understanding the importance of things like the Lily Branch.

Watershed Walk Reflection – Richard Yones

Hey! I’m Richard Yones, and this is my Watershed Reflection.

In this picture, there is a storm drain cover with a “No Dumping” sign next to it. This storm drain was found near the UGA Veterinary College building. What I noticed about this picture is not the particular drain sign, but instead the numerous storm drains labeled as such on campus. If I had a penny for every “No Dumping” sign we saw on this scavenger hunt alone, I would probably have about 13 pennies (honestly, that’s a lot of pennies). That being said, this one picture alone obviously doesn’t capture the number of storm drains in the area, much less the whole campus. Before coming to UGA, I had never seen a “No Dumping” sign by a storm drain; I didn’t even know they existed. I believe many people would walk past the drains on campus and write them off as just useless holes in the ground, and most people wouldn’t even care enough to read the signage. The reason that we cannot dump things into the storm drain is that it leads directly to the river. The presence of so many storm drains like this one tells me that UGA is a college campus that values its environment and the land it lives on. In a world that has little regard for water safety, it is comforting to see notices like this posted all over campus.

Vishruth Singireddy Watershed Reflection

In this picture, I found a culvert right outside of Joe Frank Harris Commons.
One thing I found rather interesting was that the water was actually rather clear. The water was also barely flowing out from the culvert.
When I see this picture, I think of a sewer drain. I imagine someone would think this is a sewage drain at first glance.
When I look at this picture, I feel a little surprised to see these beautiful streams being hidden under our town.
I think this picture is about a culvert and the stream that runs through it.

Nate Ware

In this picture, I see a piece of art work in the riparian buffer. What really struck me was all of the sediment around the art and the plant growth in the surrounding area as well as the lack of water in the immediate area. The picture made me think about the maintenance that is require for both art installations as the sculpture appears to be very rusted. It also made me think about how the lack of water in certain areas of a stream can affect the health of the riparian buffer. When I look at this picture I feel the need to understand how this area has changed over the years and what it looked like when the art was first installed. I feel like we need to make an effort to restore it. I think this picture is about how a watershed changes overtime whether it be naturally or through human actions.

Josh Messitte Watershed

In the picture, I see water flowing from underground into a stream at UGA. What really strikes me is that I do not know where this water is coming from. When I look at this picture, I think about the storm drain I saw on the way there labeled “do not dump, drains to river.” I wonder if that drain leads to what I am looking at here. I feel curious when I look at this picture and feel like I, as well as my classmates, should know more about the watershed program so we can help out environment more.

Danielle Hwang Watershed Reflection

In this picture, I see some trees and a bridge and sculpture behind the trees.
What I notice is the sculpture in the background and the walls around it. The walls seem to indicate that there was once something it blocked in, most likely water.
At a first glance of the picture, people might just see trees and branches because the art instillation seems to blend in with the earth.
When I look at this picture, I feel relaxed because of the overall color scheme and the trees.
I think picture is about bringing attention to UGA’s watersheds because the art instillation intrigues one to learn more about why it is there, bringing attention to the watershed.

Rebecca Buechler Watershed Walk

This is a picture of the erosion around Lilly Branch. The first thing that struck me was how much erosion there was. Lilly Branch must either rise a lot when it rains, or it used to be at some point a much larger stream. I suspect the second, because there is a lot of foliage which has grown on the new bank over time which would’ve probably not survived if the river significantly rose each time it rained. When I look at this picture, I can’t help but wonder what caused Lilly Branch to change in size so much. I think erosion is fairly common in waterways, but I don’t know if this is a normal amount. If the stream lowered, we’d see more interesting erosion patters that you can currently see through the water.

Will O’Neil Watershed Reflection

In this picture, we found a culvert traveling under River Road near East Campus.
In this picture, I noticed that the culvert did not have any water near it at all, and I assume that all of the water had evaporated over time. Due to no recent rain at the time, the culvert was still dry.
When looking at this picture, I wondered what it would look like if we had gotten lots of rain a few days before the scavenger hunt. I think someone would look at this and assume that it is a drain, but I do not think the average person would assume that it helps carry water all the way to the other side of East Campus through an underground system.
When looking at this picture, I feel relaxed due to the fact that I now know how our campus transports water back to the Lilly Branch, and then eventually the North Oconee River.
I think that this picture is meant to show people that without knowing it, water is being transported underneath places that we visit every day, such as East Campus.