Earth Day: Volunteers clean up Lady Bird Lake, surrounding trails

Volunteers clean up Lady Bird Lake

Volunteers are taking part in the third annual Earth Day Lake and Land Clean Up on Lady Bird Lake.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Rowing Dock is hosting its third annual Earth Day Lake & Land Clean Up, benefiting the Trail Conservancy.

Last year, this free cleanup brought together 1,400 volunteers to remove 8,000 pounds of trash from Lady Bird Lake and surrounding trails.

Wildflower areas along Lady Bird Lake trail

The Trail Conservancy joins Good Day Austin from east Austin to tell us about how they are protecting native ecosystems with wildflower areas along the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail.

Kate Aoueille, president of Rowing Dock, says they decided to start this event during the pandemic because they saw a lot of trash building up along the trails and lake.

"I also think that, you know, of course, with the increase in population in Austin, inevitably there's going to be more trash," Aoueille said. "And so we really wanted to make sure that we were doing something about that, and taking care of this beautiful place we get to call home."

Rowing Dock started a kayak cleaning crew. That’s where volunteers come out to the lake each week to help with the cleanup.

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"Days like this, especially where it's, like, really just the whole community coming out, gives us a blank slate for a lot of our ecological restoration work," said Hanna Cofer, interim CEO of the Trail Conservancy. "60 percent of pollutants just come from trash. So getting that all out of the lake, getting it off the shoreline allows us to come in and do that ecological restoration work and see a lot more success in that work."

For those who are interested in taking part in this clean up, you can click here for more information.

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