by Ty Fischer, Riparian Health Restoration Intern
In many ways, the shorelines of our lakes and rivers provide windows into the health of the freshwater systems themselves. For instance, lakes and rivers with dense vegetative buffers on their shorelines are more likely to have better water quality and healthier aquatic plant and animal communities, as opposed to those with barren shorelines that are more likely to suffer from increased toxin and nutrient input from runoff, high sediment levels from erosion, and other stressors.
There is another risk to our lakes and rivers, though, that involves not the lack of natural vegetation on their shorelines, but the presence of human-made waste in and around them: pollution. It can be an especially prominent issue in urban areas where the sheer volume of garbage that is produced means that some of it ends up in our lakes and rivers as opposed to in their rightful landfills or recycling plants. This litter not only impacts the aesthetics of the freshwater systems and their shorelines but can also harm wildlife in a variety of ways. Larger animals can ingest it after mistaking it for their food sources, or can even become entangled in it when they are moving (Brockhurst, 2021). Furthermore, small particles of plastic that are left over after they break down (called microplastics) can negatively impact various aspects of the feeding habits, fertility, and overall health of smaller species of fish and aquatic invertebrates (Zolotova et al., 2022).
Community shoreline cleanups can greatly reduce the prevalence of these issues. While one may think that shoreline cleanups only resolve the litter issue on land, in reality, they help solve the issue for both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This is because the litter that is pushed onto the shoreline is frequently swept back into the water by wind, waves, or floods, and this puts it in a constant state of flux between being on the shoreline and in our waterway (Hoellein et al., 2014). Community shoreline cleanups are effective because they step in at the critical moment when the waste on our shorelines is readily available to be reclaimed by us, thereby preventing it from being washed back out into the body of water and potentially causing harm to wildlife or breaking down into microplastics later on.
What’s more is that, in the case of river shoreline cleanups specifically, the benefits can extend far beyond the local scale and can improve the health of an entire watershed. This is because rivers have currents that can carry waste thousands of kilometres through our freshwater systems, even as far as our oceans (Brockhurst, 2021), and harm wildlife or splinter into millions of microplastics along the way. A shoreline cleanup stops this process before it even begins. When you pick up a piece of litter on a river shoreline, you prevent it from undergoing this long journey in which it might become someone (or something) else’s problem further down the line. You can stop this piece of pollution’s dark legacy in its tracks, and that’s a powerful idea.
Engaging in community shoreline cleanups is a mutually beneficial exercise, too! When you take direct action to help solve an environmental problem with members of your community, you are left with a sense of satisfaction and a deepened connection between your peers and the natural world. That is why a shoreline cleanup is one of the greening projects offered by the Ottawa Faith Community Capacity Building Program, a joint effort between Greening Sacred Spaces Ottawa and Watersheds Canada. This two-year program provides education, tools, and resources to community leaders in faith communities in the Ottawa and surrounding area so they can lead a greening project (like a community shoreline cleanup) through a microgrant program opportunity.
Choosing to lead or participate in a community shoreline cleanup is a fantastic way to make a tangible difference in your world, and the Ottawa Faith Community Capacity Building Program can help facilitate it. The result of these powerful action-based projects is improved health for native wildlife and a stronger, more united sense of community for the people who undertook it.
This blog is part of a series generously funded by the Ottawa Community Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, and the Living Cities Canada Fund of Green Communities Canada. The two-year Ottawa Faith Community Capacity Building Program is led by Watersheds Canada and Greening Sacred Spaces.
Sources
Brockhurst, M. (2021, May 12). Why should you care about shoreline cleanups in 2021? /Ottawa Riverkeeper | Garde-rivière des Outaouais. https://ottawariverkeeper.ca/why-should-you-care-about-shoreline-cleanups-in-2021/
Hoellein, T., Rojas, M., Pink, A., Gasior, J., & Kelly, J. (2014). Anthropogenic litter in urban freshwater ecosystems: Distribution and microbial interactions. PLoS ONE, 9(6). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098485
Zolotova, N., Kosyreva, A., Dzhalilova, D., Fokichev, N., & Makarova, O. (2022). Harmful effects of the microplastic pollution on Animal Health: A Literature Review. PeerJ, 10. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13503