Urban Nature Trail Clean-up in a preserve area.
Our community, Doral (West of Miami-Dade County), has grown in recent years on an area that was part of a wider ecosystem in South Florida. There are some remaining patches of the original vegetation that are now nature preserves. They are home to animal species ranging from rabbits to native bird species as anhingas, green herons or egrets. We realized that one of these areas was accumulating litter and garbage from a hiking trail that goes across it.
We are a Cub Scout Pack of about 80 scouts with ages from 5 to 11 year old. We thought that with proper adult assistance the scouts could easily help in a clean up project and that they would tread lightly on the vegetation. We ask the City for permission and they happily granted it to us.
The impact was directly related to wildlife and vegetation and, indirectly, to people. The trail surroundings are now more reflective of a preserved area untouched by human presence. Animals can now roam the area freely and without dangers of poisoning or being hurt.
The scouts learned to take action in their community by being reactive to what they see as wrong. Team work was also important in the execution. For the future we want to make clean up of endangered areas a routine and a commitment to our city.
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