Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

My name is Elizabeth, and I am a junior in high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado. For my Apprentice Ecologist project on behalf of the Nicodemus Wilderness Project, I founded the Keep Colorado Clean club. We have collected 154 pounds of trash in the last few months, and over 1,260 pounds of trash since June 2020.

Ever since I was little, I have enjoyed being in the woods. I grew up in Minnesota, and I loved going to Parker's Lake to swim, to see the geese, to fish, and to walk on the trails. However, when I walked near Parker's Lake, I saw plastic caught on tree branches, styrofoam containers near the lake, and other litter. I tried to carry as much as I could in my little arms, but some litter always fell out. Looking back, I realize that I needed an Apprentice Ecologist project to clean up this community space while teaching me the value of a clean environment.

We moved from Minnesota to Colorado Springs when I was 10. Our neighborhood is called Rockrimmon, and it is on the northwest side of Colorado Springs, just south of the US Air Force Academy. Our neighborhood is built on top of a decommissioned coal mine. Miners dug out coal to power gold ore foundries, steel factories, and trains. Once the mine stopped in the 1960s, builders developed this mining area into 1,100 homes.

I have enjoyed hiking on our neighborhood trails with my friends, but every time I went out on a nature walk, I saw litter on the trails and in the streams, just like I did in Minnesota. I realized that no one else would clean up the trash, so I decided to start the Keep Colorado Clean club.

I made a list of the supplies we would need to clean up safely and effectively, and I made kits for each person who would help. I invited friends to join me on trail clean ups. We used protective gloves and trash bags, and we wore clothes to protect our skin from sharp pieces of trash. We used a compact scale to weigh the trash that we collected, and we worked together to carry large trash pieces to area dumpsters.

In just the last few months, we have cleaned up 154 pounds of trash, and since June 2020, we have collected over 1,260 pounds of trash. We have picked up soda cans, plastic water bottles, glass bottles, styrofoam containers, take-out containers, sauce containers, fertilizer bags, bottle caps, tires, and a golf bag. Seeing the variety of items that were littered shocked me. Some of these items had been there for months, and no one collected them.

I talked to people at my school and church to let them know the scale of the litter problem. We talked to them about how a simple solution, like carrying a small trash bag, could solve a larger problem. Over time, the amount of litter on our neighborhood trails decreased, and I think that our small solutions made an impact. Many of my friends who help in Keep Colorado Clean have told me about how our neighbors appreciate and help maintain the trails being clean.

I wanted to clean up our neighborhood for several reasons. First, our neighborhood was already damaged by the coal mine. Cleaning up its trails would help restore it to its previous natural state. Second, our neighborhood is home to a large population of mule deer, rabbits, and mountain lions. All of these animals need clean trails, so that they have clean water sources, and so that they don't ingest or get caught in the trash. Third, many children live in our neighborhood, and they could get hurt by sharp pieces of trash. Also, cleaning up the trails shows the children the value of taking care of their communities and having a clean Earth.

Most importantly, this project benefited our community by giving teenagers a sense of power. Before, we felt powerless to stop pollution and climate change. But with our trail clean-ups, we saw that we can make a real difference in our community - helping animals, protecting children, and restoring nature. We hope to continue to use our creativity, empathy, and perseverance to change the world.