Green Orillia is setting its sights on local shorelines and is asking the community to do the same.
The first Green Orillia Waterways Cleanup is taking place Sunday.
The group is asking people to choose a shoreline near them — Lake Couchiching, Lake Simcoe, Bass Lake, creeks, wetlands or elsewhere — and head out with garbage bags and pickers to clean up.
“When debris — plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts, etc. — is thrown on the ground, it gets washed directly into our waterways,” Green Orillia noted in a news release. “In addition to potentially choking, suffocating, or disabling aquatic life like ducks, fish, turtles, and birds, litter decreases oxygen levels in the water when it decays.”
Participants can head out any time Sunday, but Green Orillia encourages them to do so in the morning, “as the waves are usually the calmest and the garbage has washed up onto shore.
“Using a kayak or canoe is an efficient way to do this, although if you do not have access to one, you can also walk along a shoreline or wear some hip waders and get right in there.”
Kayak rental companies are stationed at Couchiching and Moose beaches.
Sunday’s effort will be Green Orillia’s fifth garbage cleanup event — the last one had more than 50 participants — but its first with a complete focus on shorelines.
The group encourages participants to let Green Orillia know the areas they will be focusing on so people can spread out and if there are areas that need more attention.
Participants are asked to RSVP on the Facebook event page and, on cleanup day, share photos and videos on social media, tagging Green Orillia.
Green Orillia has garbage tags available. They can be picked up Saturday at the group’s booth at the Orillia Farmers’ Market.
For more information, email [email protected].
