Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Imagine yourself walking around at 11:00 p.m. near the Mississippi River. You hear noises around you: the occasional car and animal prowling. In the distance, as you strain your ears, you think you hear a party. You follow the noise as your curiosity gets the best of you. When you near the hooting and hollering, you smell smoke of all kinds: cigarette smoke, the smoke of a bonfire, and an unidentified kind of smoke. What could that smell be? When the party comes into view, you realize the smell is marijuana. As you take a last glance around before turning to run, you see the hundreds of beer cans, all discarded in the bushes. You also see millions (or so it seems) of cigarette butts. You quickly turn and run, sadness in your soul. You are sad for the wilderness, the animals, and, of course, the river.
I imagine that the above is what happens at night along the Mississippi. If you go down to the banks, you may think so too. There are millions of cigarette butts, carelessly thrown on the ground, hundreds of empty beer cans and bottles, and, possibly the most disappointing, discarded syringes used for drug injections. Recently, I went down to the riverbed with a group from Minnehaha Academy called Impact. We went as a part of the Nicodemus Wilderness Project. I was in awe at the massive amounts of trash down there. There was so much trash that sometimes I felt like we hadnâ€™t made a dent. We found so much stuff down by the river: candy wrappers, T-shirts, cigarettes, beer cans, syringes, and so much more. When the 12 people picking up trash were finished, we had collected 12 bags of trash and recycling. That made me realize that I had made a dent. I felt amazing because I knew I had helped out the environment. I learned that it takes everyone together to keep the river clean. Even though we couldnâ€™t clean up the whole river, I felt good helping with the area we cleaned up. I will never forget the eye opening experience.