The Editor,
Back in March, three of our neighbours' children and my three children, all aged from four to eight years, teamed up with me to clean up around the creek near our house. Each child carried a plastic bag dedicated to receive recyclable, refundable or garbage items. They helped looking for these items while I picked them up and put them in the appropriate bags.
In a short period of time, we collected numerous pieces of aluminum and cardboard as well as cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles/containers, cigarette butts, used firecrackers and plastic bags full of dog poo.
The children were surprised by the quantity of things being littered in the forest. I talked to them about respecting nature, their surroundings, the wildlife and other people.
To those of you who are littering, think about how you would react if someone threw something on your front lawn. With all the residential development happening in the Tri-Cities (especially up Coast Meridian, on Burke Mountain), the environmental issues like water pollution, littering, bears in urban areas and loss of wildlife habitat won't go away and it's partially up to us prevent that some of these some issues become greater. Let's work together to leave a sustainable legacy to our children, our grandchildren and the generations to come.
Suzanne L'Heureux, Port Coquitlam
