Keeping the Midlands Beautiful

Today Christina Hulslander, her son and daughter joined us to scout a possible location for us to keep clean for Keep the Midlands Beautiful. With our kids armed with grabbers, and the baby on my back, we descended upon Earlewood Park off North Main Street in Columbia to have a look at the logistics of Smith Branch Creek.

It runs from somewhere up by Providence Hospital on Forest Drive all the way to the Broad River, just above the point where the canal breaks off. This creek was profiled in The State newspaper as the culprit for the immense amount of garbage that accumulates at the head of the canal. I have a link to a map here. Runoff from urban streets washes into the creek, and flows into the Broad. Obviously, a regular effort in Earlewood Park alone may not alleviate the problem entirely, but based on the amount of trash we saw and collected in the short section we scouted, we helped a lot. Trash was embedded in the creek bed, the banks, tangled in the brush, and hanging in the trees overlooking the creek, apparently lodged there during high water.

Now we just need to decide if the Holistic Moms Network of the Midlands wants to adopt this project on a permanent basis, which would entail cleaning it twice a year. I will try to return and take more pictures, but based on the fun wading through the shallow waters, I think if we left it up to the children, the answer would be a resounding yes!