BRUTUS - At one time, passengers, supplies and merchandise all made their way across New York along the Erie Canal.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Michele Wunderlich, of Baldwinsville, works her way across a log at the Erie Canal cleanup event along Route 31 from Weedsport to Port Byron on Saturday. Wunderlich also helped organize the event as part of a geocaching event, a treasure hunt activity using global positioning systems that usually involves the participants picking up trash.
Michele Wunderlich, of Baldwinsville, works her way across a log at the Erie Canal cleanup event along Route 31 from Weedsport to Port Byron on Saturday. Wunderlich also helped organize the event as part of a geocaching event, a treasure hunt activity using global positioning systems that usually involves the participants picking up trash.
While most of the canal is no longer in use, it is still an important part of the state's heritage, but a part that perhaps doesn't always get the attention it deserves.
At locations like Aqueduct Park Trail between Weedsport and Port Byron the history of the canal has been preserved, but the park has also become a place where a great deal of refuse finds its way.
Saturday and Sunday, teams across the state descended on locations like Aqueduct Park Trail for the fourth annual statewide Canal Clean Sweep.
Irene Holak, program educator for environmental issues at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County heard about the event and saw it as a great opportunity to lend a helping hand to the canal and the environment.
“I thought that it would be a good idea,” Holak said. “Earth Day is coming up. And it is a lovely day to be outside and I think it has worked out really well.”
Holak was joined in her planning efforts by Michele Wunderlich.
Wunderlich works for the planning department in Baldwinsville, and the cleanup effort piqued her professional interest, and also her personal interest.
Wunderlich, along with more than a dozen other volunteers for the cleanup, are what are known as geocachers, a combination of treasure and scavenger hunters who have an interest not only in finding items, but also in helping keep the places they search in good shape.
Wunderlich said that when she heard about the event, she saw a golden opportunity for a geocacher event and got in touch with Holak about doing something together.
“It is half work related,” Wunderlich said. “But my time here is really as a volunteer to come out and help clean up the trails.”
Wunderlich said that hidden along the trails were various items, nothing of any great value, just simple items such as an old soda can.
Wunderlich said that geocaching is gaining popularity with the easy availability of items such as hand held GPS systems and an increased interest in keeping the environment clean.
“It is a worldwide game,” Donna Wester, a geocacher from Boonsville, said. “We go along the trails with our GPS systems and we get the coordinates off the Web site and we go along looking for hidden treasures. It can be something as simple as a piece of old Tupperware, but it is a lot of fun.”
Joining in on the hunt were geocachers from all over the area, including Auburn and Syracuse.
Mary Lee Gunn and Bill Davies, both of Auburn, were among those taking part in the cleanup and the hunt.
Along the way, volunteers found bottles and cans, roofing materials - even a bathroom sink - scattered along the trail.
“It looks like we've found everything - including the kitchen sink,” Davies said. “We just wanted to come out and help pick up some of the trash along the trail and we get to have some fun, as well.”
Throughout the afternoon, volunteers continued to pull bags of garbage out of the trails, with more than 10 large bags piled up along with larger pieces such as metal sign posts and corrugated roofing materials.
“I think this has been a really great opportunity,” Holak said. “We've pulled a lot of trash out of the trails, and I think it has really helped to clean the trails up today.”
If you go
What: Annual Pack 59 Clean Up Day
When: 1:30 p.m. today
Where: Cub Scout Pack 59 meeting at Arby's restaurant and cleaning about 2 miles along the canal beginning at Arby's in Weedsport
For more information: Contact Stacie Wilmot 834-6617 or sawilmot@gmail.com
At locations like Aqueduct Park Trail between Weedsport and Port Byron the history of the canal has been preserved, but the park has also become a place where a great deal of refuse finds its way.
Saturday and Sunday, teams across the state descended on locations like Aqueduct Park Trail for the fourth annual statewide Canal Clean Sweep.
Irene Holak, program educator for environmental issues at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Cayuga County heard about the event and saw it as a great opportunity to lend a helping hand to the canal and the environment.
“I thought that it would be a good idea,” Holak said. “Earth Day is coming up. And it is a lovely day to be outside and I think it has worked out really well.”
Holak was joined in her planning efforts by Michele Wunderlich.
Wunderlich works for the planning department in Baldwinsville, and the cleanup effort piqued her professional interest, and also her personal interest.
Wunderlich, along with more than a dozen other volunteers for the cleanup, are what are known as geocachers, a combination of treasure and scavenger hunters who have an interest not only in finding items, but also in helping keep the places they search in good shape.
Wunderlich said that when she heard about the event, she saw a golden opportunity for a geocacher event and got in touch with Holak about doing something together.
“It is half work related,” Wunderlich said. “But my time here is really as a volunteer to come out and help clean up the trails.”
Wunderlich said that hidden along the trails were various items, nothing of any great value, just simple items such as an old soda can.
Wunderlich said that geocaching is gaining popularity with the easy availability of items such as hand held GPS systems and an increased interest in keeping the environment clean.
“It is a worldwide game,” Donna Wester, a geocacher from Boonsville, said. “We go along the trails with our GPS systems and we get the coordinates off the Web site and we go along looking for hidden treasures. It can be something as simple as a piece of old Tupperware, but it is a lot of fun.”
Joining in on the hunt were geocachers from all over the area, including Auburn and Syracuse.
Mary Lee Gunn and Bill Davies, both of Auburn, were among those taking part in the cleanup and the hunt.
Along the way, volunteers found bottles and cans, roofing materials - even a bathroom sink - scattered along the trail.
“It looks like we've found everything - including the kitchen sink,” Davies said. “We just wanted to come out and help pick up some of the trash along the trail and we get to have some fun, as well.”
Throughout the afternoon, volunteers continued to pull bags of garbage out of the trails, with more than 10 large bags piled up along with larger pieces such as metal sign posts and corrugated roofing materials.
“I think this has been a really great opportunity,” Holak said. “We've pulled a lot of trash out of the trails, and I think it has really helped to clean the trails up today.”
If you go
What: Annual Pack 59 Clean Up Day
When: 1:30 p.m. today
Where: Cub Scout Pack 59 meeting at Arby's restaurant and cleaning about 2 miles along the canal beginning at Arby's in Weedsport
For more information: Contact Stacie Wilmot 834-6617 or sawilmot@gmail.com
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