OSWEGO COUNTY – Celebrate Earth Week this week and all year ‘round by joining an upcoming group clean-up event or simply by doing your part every day to protect and preserve our green spaces and waterways. Earth Week began on Monday, April 19 and runs through Saturday, April 24. “Restore Our Earth,” the theme for this year’s event, reflecting a focus on Earth’s natural processes and ecosystems and finding ways to restore them through green technology and innovative thinking.

The magnitude of this focus brings individuals and groups together to ensure its success. The Rotary is one such organization. The group has added preservation of the environment to its list of focus areas which include promoting and building peace, providing clean water and sanitation, fighting disease, and protecting maternal and child health, supporting literacy and promoting education, and growing local economies.

The Oswego Rotary Club is demonstrating its commitment to the environment by participating in the Great Lakes Watershed Clean-up initiative. The program focuses on cleaning up the waterways of the Great Lakes; with the added goal of making it the largest series of connected clean-up events ever held on the Great Lakes at this time.

“Protecting the environment is a newly-added focus area for the Rotary,” said Sabine Ingerson, president-elect of the Oswego Rotary Club and co-chair of its watershed clean-up committee. “This speaks well to the concerns of the community as we all know how special the lake and its waterways are to residents and visitors of our county.”

She added, “That’s why we’re asking residents to roll up their sleeves and come join us in these clean-up events.”

The Oswego Rotary Club has the following clean-up events scheduled:

• Saturday, April 24 at 8:30 a.m.: Lakeview Park, Oswego.
• Saturday, April 24 at 10 a.m.: Breitbeck Park, Oswego.
• Wednesday, April 28 at 10:30 a.m.: Selkirk Shores State Park, Pulaski.

A clean-up event at Deer Creek Marsh Wildlife Management Area is being planned for this weekend as well. Interested participants should check “The Oswego Rotary” page on Facebook for updates and details.

The group is also looking for participants to hold clean-up events at Mexico Point Park, Mexico and Sandy Island State Park, Pulaski.

Rotarians and other community members have already been hard at work cleaning up areas along Lake Ontario. Last Saturday, the Oswego Sunrise Rotary Club held a clean-up event at Sunset Bay Park in Scriba. Volunteers removed a large item along with a 30-gallon trash bag full of debris.

SUNY Oswego also recently held a clean-up event of the lake’s shoreline on campus. More than 40 students participated in the event, removing over 113 pounds of trash.

The Great Lakes Watershed Clean-up initiative highlights the hard work and effort being made to clean up waterways along the Great Lakes. It also addresses the need for more support and participation.

“The Great Lakes are one of the largest sources of freshwater in the world,” Ingerson. “As environmental stewards, we need to protect these natural resources.”

According to a report from the Rochester Institute of Technology, more than 22 million pounds of trash and plastic pollution ends up in the Great Lakes each year. Littered items pose a significant threat to terrestrial and aquatic life and pollute one of the most precious and limited natural resources on the planet.

Clean-up events with community groups and individual volunteers are critical to removing thousands of pounds of trash that collects in watersheds each year. Unfortunately, the debris continues to accumulate after each clean-up due to ongoing littering and illegal dumping.

“This is not a reason to give up though,” Ingerson added. “We have to raise awareness about how important it is to protect our waterways and instill a sense of stewardship in the care of them. Every person can make a difference.”

People who are not able to join a clean-up event can make small changes in their everyday lives that can go a long way toward helping restore the Earth’s natural resources and ecosystems.

They include reducing your energy and water consumption by turning off lights when you leave the room and avoiding running water unnecessarily. Moderate heat and air conditioning when no one is home and limit sprinkler use. Use re-usable water bottles, straws, and shopping bags. Where you can, shop local and buy ethical and environmentally sustainable products.

Make your home more energy efficient by improving lighting and insulation and replacing windows and appliances with more efficient models when it’s time. Build a simple birdhouse, plant a tree, or start garden. Most importantly, get out and enjoy nature by going for a hike, sitting in a park, or relaxing on the beach. 

The Oswego Rotary Club continues to maintain COVID-19 protocols at all clean-up events. To join them, contact Sabine Ingerson at singersonrotary@gmail.com to reserve your place.

For more information about other events and activities with the Oswego Rotary Club, visit its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/oswegorotary.

CLEANING UP TOGETHER – Anthony Canty (left) and Oswego Rotarian Joe Stabb work together to collect debris and clean up the shoreline along SUNY Oswego’s campus. The event was organized by the college. Photo courtesy of SUNY Oswego.

MANY HANDS MAKE LIGHT WORK – SUNY Oswego recently held a clean-up event of its shoreline along Great Lake Ontario. More than 40 people participated, and they removed over 113 pounds of trash from the shoreline. Photo courtesy of SUNY Oswego.