Scenes from Litter Mob 9 - after Irene

We had a good turn out last Tuesday, post Irene, and we took to the woods, armed, this time, with rakes. 

We were warned to watch out for widow/er makers, damaged branches still held aloft by others or by a flimsy splinter or two. 

A beautiful old white oak had crashed down across one of the main tar paths.

David attacked it with a chainsaw and hauled the big logs backwards with a rope tied to the Ford.

We helped by sharing the handsaw on the smaller branches and by not being crushed.

Heart of oak. Fresh-sawn white oak smells like sweaty horses.

We still scoured the path edges for the usual litter, and met The Flasher as we did our rounds. His is a regular presence. He doesn't bother women and is quite polite.

Another solitary man heading into the woods for pleasure while the chainsaw buzzed.

Really a bizarre scene. Downed trees and sex traffic.

A felled tulip tree, very old.

Below: You'd think these would be off on some side path, but no, they were behind and in front of a log on one of the main paths. I arranged them neatly with my grabber on top of the log. And then? Then what? Well, I left them there.

Frank said something earlier. We're just picking everything up and making it neat for them, he said, as he flung some trash into the middle of the path from where it had been tossed into the bushes.

And I interpret "them" as The Parks Department,  The Prospect Park Alliance and the men who cruise in these woods.

It's true. As long as we just pick up, and nothing else is done, we are just marking time, treading water, not making a dent. 

No one addresses these men in any way.  

No one says, You should not be doing this, you are making a wreck of these woods, would it be too much to ask you to take your soiled discards back out with you?

Why not?

Thanks to Inge, Frank, Fred, Paulette, Adam and David.

Litter Mob results:

6 bags of trash
Several branches sawn and removed

Seasonal wildflowers spotted:


Impatiens capensis - jewelweed