Volunteers are coming together this Saturday for the Salt Creek Watershed Network’s annual spring cleanup within the Salt Creek Woods Nature Preserve.
“Every spring, between Earth Day and the end of the month, we organize the neighborhoods along the Salt Creek. The watershed starts up in Palatine, but it runs through, obviously, one of the busiest or most densely populated parts of the Chicagoland area and the country, so it accumulates a lot of stuff along its way,” said Scott Saacke, a a member of the group’s board.
Environmentally inclined residents of the region will gather in two teams Saturday morning. Those traveling by water to skim it for trash will meet at the Bemis Woods North footbridge at 7 a.m. while those collecting litter by land will meet at the bridge at 9 a.m.
“It’s really improved over the years as far as the trash, but there are still hotspots that are going to be bad: anywhere near major roads, where a bridge crosses the river,” Saacke said.
The number of volunteers taking to the creek in kayaks and canoes has grown to about 20 in recent years, Saacke said.
“They’re digging up tires, all kinds of stuff that is right along the creek,” he said. “The fact that there are tires that are found every year is a little bit depressing.”
The meeting place is accessible via Wolf Road between Ogden Avenue and 31st Street in the unincorporated Forest Preserves of Cook County area that is south of Westchester, west of LaGrange Park, north of Western Springs and east of Oak Brook.
After finishing their task of cleaning up the area, the volunteers will come back together for a barbecue lunch.
Saacke said people of all ages, especially youth groups, are encouraged to participate, making a compounding difference on the country’s waterways while learning about the history of the area.
“It’s a solid creek, but it’s actually a huge tributary to the trash problems that will wind their way into the Des Plaines River, and then eventually into the Illinois River and down the Mississippi River to other cities,” he said. “Whatever we get early has got a huge multiplying effect of what it saves that [would] become other communities’ problems down the stream. … It’s all connected.”
As a more involved volunteer with the organization, Saacke said he’s preparing to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday so he can set up signs directing others and ensure the event goes smoothly.
Sometimes, the group’s efforts to clean the creek extend beyond the day of the event, Saacke added.
“We take a look at where the trash is located, and if it’s near a business or an industrial area … then we’ll talk to either the community, the municipality, or in some cases we’ll go into the business, not to confront the owner but to tell them what we’re doing and ask them about the challenges,” he said. “Sometimes, that works, and sometimes, it’s like talking to a brick wall, but it’s a follow-up thing. It’s really gratifying to see it get better.”
The Salt Creek Watershed Network has been around since 1998, and Saacke said the annual spring cleanup is its biggest event each year. He said he was “roped into it” by a neighbor more than a decade ago and has slowly increased his dedication to the group over time.
Saacke said getting out into the world with other people, both like-minded and from different walks of life, excites him the most about the event.
“Just being out in this time of year and having a feeling that you’re doing something, even though it feels small but really isn’t. There’s a lot of fulfillment out of that, too, and it’s always fun to see it come together. It always does, no matter the weather,” he said. “We’ve had snow; we’ve had driving rain, but if you’re out there moving around, and you’re doing something like that, it still feels good.”
