"Oh look, another bottle..."

Trash is a near-constant along the Sycamore Greenway, particularly in the areas near existing neighborhoods, where stray items from overturned recycle and trash bins can easily be carried to the stormwater drains or blown into the basins of the trail. We often schedule trash cleanups around these areas to help keep the trash in check (the north end is long overdue, and thankfully will be a target of the South District's April 21 Team Up to Clean Up volunteer event).

I've always considered the long "spine" of the trail, between Birds in Flight and the Sycamore Apartments, to be relatively clean by comparison, with no garbage cans nearby and far from busy roads. A few bottles tossed by careless pedestrians or cyclists, maybe, or cans deposited near the benches by visitors relaxing maybe a little too much. After finding a few one-liter "Clear American" bottles of flavored water tossed into the brush, I resolved to bring a trash bag next time I was out with my camera so I could pick them up.

Just a few bottles, right? It's not like those trashy basins collecting neighborhood litter. Just a quick pick-up here and there, then back to taking pictures. Well...no. 

Many of those bottles visible from the trail were accompanied by two or three others hidden from view by grass or leaves. The camera was quickly abandoned (a lesson in not trying to multitask on the trail...focus on the task at hand, whether it be seeing nature, collecting trash, or getting some exercise!) and the trash bag soon filled.

Which is fine. I don't mind taking care of the trail that gives us so much in return. But this cleanup was particularly frustrating in comparison to the regular pickups on either end of the trail, which can easily yield ten times as many full bags of trash, for one reason: this trash didn't find its way to the trail accidentally, the result of a windy trash day or being blown off the back of a passing vehicle. It was purposely thrown or left there by the very people who are enjoying the benefits of the full length of trail.

I was reminded of a recent article I read about the Missoula Bag Man, who tirelessly picks up dog deposits from the trail he uses, bagging them and leaving the evidence visible for folks who allow their dogs to do their business along the trail (including the less-than-sympathetic author of the article). The article frames the Bag Man as a bit of a zealot, looking for excuses to shame those not behaving in the way he deems appropriate. 

I can't say that I haven't been tempted to do the same, both with bagged dog poo tossed into the brush as well as the bottles and cans, just to make visible the scope of the problem. But the point isn't necessarily to shame the perpetrators. It's to take care of these places that we love. Fixing damage isn't about shaming those who cause the damage; it's about restoring something to the way it is supposed to be. 

Whether it's a national park or a neighborhood trail, our open spaces deserve better. 

There are a number of upcoming opportunities to help clean up litter around the Sycamore Greenway and elsewhere in our community! 

• Sunday, April 14: Pick-Up 2 Clean-Up in downtown Iowa City hosted by the Downtown City Gardens, Iowa City Downtown District, and the Iowa City Litter Crew meetup group.
• Sunday, April 21: South District Team Up to Clean Up, hosted by several community organizations including Sycamore Greenway Friends
• Monday, April 22: Earth Day Highway 6 Cleanup hosted by Iowa City Landfill & Recycling.

And of course every walk is an opportunity to grab that bottle or can that ended up far from where it belongs. 

Botanizing the Soccer Park

The Sycamore Greenway trail extends almost exactly two miles from its northern entry point, flanked by mosaic obelisks near Grant Wood Elementary, to its southern terminus at the parking lot in Kickers Soccer Park. Usually my visits to the south end of the trail end a fifth of a mile short, at the fenced boundary of the soccer park, for no reason other than it seems like the manicured and sometimes-populated athletic fields beyond the gateway are just a little too distant from the Greenway. 

On a recent windy day, I paused at the fence, my usual turnaround, and instead capped my lens and forged ahead with the intent of getting some exercise with a purposeful walk around the soccer park. That lasted all of 15 steps before a cloud of curious, tiny white flowers growing very low to the ground in the dry soil next to the trail drew my attention. 

Jagged Chickweed (tentative)

It's fascinating how different weedy plants can be seen in different yet nearby places, like the mullein that is scarce along the Greenway but proliferates a bit west near TTRA. These flowers were itty-bitty and snowy white, with jagged tips and held in a cup of pointed sepals. The stems had what appeared to be glandular hairs along them. I haven't noticed similar flowers in the open areas along the rest of the trail, so I took some photos and kept walking.

Not many minutes later, heading back north along Soccer Park Road, another cloud of low-growing white flowers caught my eye. Not quite the same as the first: the stems were a reddish-brown rather than fleshy green, lacking paired leaves along their length, and had flattened capsules atop the stems alongside the white flowers (which were also subtly different, with the white petals more separated from each other, the tips bluntly rounded rather than irregularly pointed). Again, a tiny flower I hadn't encountered previously.

 A few photos later, and I was heading back home to see if iNaturalist could help identify my little white flowers (I use the term "botanizing" in the title loosely, as a real botanizer would do a much more thorough job than I, making note of and capturing clear images of the flowers and flower parts, leaves and stems, any seeds present, etc.). The first little white flower was suggested as Jagged Chickweed (Holosteum umbellatum), a non-native from Eurasia. The second was also tentatively identified as a non-native from Eurasia, Early or Spring Whitlowgrass (Draba verna), with a basal rosette of leaves above which the inflorescence is held aloft on a smooth stem. 

Spring Whitlowgrass (tentative), tiny white flowers
held aloft on a tangle of wiry stems

Both plants bloom very early in the season, and with their low profile and brief blooming period, are easy to overlook. I can't be sure they don't grow elsewhere along the trail, but taking a detour through an unfamiliar part of the trail and nearby roadsides was the perfect opportunity to take note of things a bit unusual, and a reminder not to make assumptions about whether any trail is worth visiting (they are...they always are!).