Thanksgiving on the Speed

Thanksgiving landed on the kind of October day Southern Ontario doesn’t usually hand out this late: blue sky, warm sun, and the trees along the Speed River near Riverside Park well into their colour. We spent the holiday there as a family, saying thanks the way we usually do, with bags, gloves and grabbers.

On the slope above the shore stand rows of young trees, a Trees for Guelph planting we helped with about two years ago. Below them, a large channel runs straight into the river with nothing to filter what it carries.

Most of what we found at the bottom of the channel was foam, drinking cups, plastic and grocery bags, and the occasional piece of car bumper. The heaviest find was an insulated grocery bag packed with tools and a jug of what looked like motor oil. Whoever packed it was organized about everything except where to leave it.

Julia took the water, working the shallows. She found the front end of a desktop PC, the rest presumably somewhere downstream. The kid took the bank. By the end we had four bags, a massive block of foam and a pile of construction lumber someone had left in the woods.

We counted our haul in front of the newly planted trees where our cleanup first started. Most of them have outgrown their guards and are turning yellow with everything else. Removing the debris around them will hopefully keep them thriving, and for that we’re thankful.

Here’s a short video of our cleanup: