Our Ravine Obsession

The fascination with cleaning up the ravine actually started before we owned the property. As a teenager I was able to convince local neighborhood kids to help clean up debris and haul junk up a hillside. It was a great success. We were able to clean up all the trash, recycle tons of metal and disposed of over 50 tires. To celebrate we threw a pizza party with pinata & games. I’m sure the motivating factor for the kids was the promise of a party, but as we finished the project it was apparent that they were proud of what had been accomplished.

6 years later I bought the property from family and moved back into my childhood home. My entire life and work evolves around gardening, wildlife and the environment, so I was really excited about owning a little pocket of wildlife while living in the city. I don’t know how many people living a few houses from a major interstate can say they have as much wildlife as we do. The downsize of having a ravine as a backyard is everyone feels inclined to dump whatever they want in it. This has been a big problem.

Since Moline has decided to change over to an automated garbage collection system, I fear that the dumping will only get worse. Now people will have to fit all their garbage in a 96 gallon container. There are a lot of rentals in our neighborhood that change occupants. When this occurs there is a lot of trash. Even though the city offers one free bulk collection a year, I don’t think many will take advantage of it. Not sure it would apply to the families or the house address, in which there could be several needed pickups a year depending on the amount of tenants that move in & out.

So we seek no dumping signs and awareness. We want people to know that someone cares about these little dips in the earth. We would also like to see tougher consequences if someone is caught dumping trash on private property. A fine and making them clean it up would be nice.

This is our story...