July 30, 2010
Opinion
A messy walk in the park
There are other people, in Brockton and beyond, like Lori Lafargue. But no one has likely spent as much time cleaning and caring for D.W. Field Park as Lafargue.
But the woman who cares so much for the park that she was married there doesn’t pick up trash and ask strangers to clean up after themselves just to keep the park beautiful. Her real mission is to save the birds, ducks, swans and fish from being killed by litter.
An empty bread bag, a plastic bottle holder, almost any “harmless” piece of litter, can become deadly if a bird or duck gets entangled in it. Yet the trash is accumulating, wildlife is dying, and Lafargue is fighting an uphill battle against people who don’t understand the consequences of throwing trash on the ground.
Brockton has hired a group of teenagers to help clean the park, but Park Superintendent John Dorgan said, “It’s a Herculean task to stay on top of everything” and the trash returns as fast as it can be picked up.
It might be difficult to keep the edge of the water clean and safe for wildlife, but it is not difficult to not make a mess in the first place. Yet almost nothing seems to stop people who think of the park as their own private landfill.
Other wildlife advocates like Priscilla Chapman, the Taunton Watershed advocate for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, said laws, such as expanding the bottle bill, would decrease litter and save wildlife.
Extending the bottle return law to include plastic water and juice bottles makes sense when you consider that more than three-quarters of containers covered by the bottle bill are returned. If it is extended, it will stop many people from throwing them on the ground or leaving them in the park and will make the job of good people like Lori Lafargue and Priscilla Chapman a little easier.
http://www.enterprisenews.com/opinions/editorials/x23930957/OPINION-A-messy-walk-in-the-park
