cleanstream.org
Thanh -- March 23rd, 2008
Have you seen the “Doodie-Free” campaign? If you haven’t, I hope you’re picking up your dog’s poop and if you want to find out why its good for your personal health, your neighbors yard, and the environment, go to www.cleanstream.org or click on the pictures below.
The Doodie Free campaign was first launched in April 2007, and has been targeting pet owners at pet stores, vets offices, and other pet/dog friendly places. You may have also read about it in the Daily-New Record or seen it at the Valley 4th Parade.
www.cleanstream.org has been up and running since August 2007 and its goal is to be a community resource for information on how each of us can improve the health of local waterways in Harrisonburg and the Shenandoah Valley. The website is part of larger, multi-year campaign to help educate our community about water quality issues. The site is managed by City of Harrisonburg staff, but members of the community and local organizations are encouraged to contribute and share information on the website.
Under “Get Invovled,” information is provided on local programs – education and local assistance programs – as well as information on upcoming events you can participate in. Examples: Blacks Run/ Downtown Clean Up Day April 12!, and the Septic System Cost-Share Assistance Program managed by the Shenandoah Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD). There’s also a page with information on currently happening and completed stream bank repair, rain garden, and steamside planting projects in the area.
Keep an eye out this spring for another CleanStream campaign on good Lawn Care practices and if you have something to share contact thanhd [at] harrisonburgva [dot] gov.
I have seen this campaign. I will admit though that I’m immature enough to get a chuckle out of the t-shirts when they are seen out of context.
I hope the person who let their dog go all over the sidewalk downtown in front of my office sees this.
Emmy, your youth and and wisdom allows you to see the humor “behind” it all…
I bought our dog a shirt that has the following printed on it…”Don’t watch me go doo-doos”
I DO NOT wear a glove when walking the pup, but I do pick it up…I know that is gross but it has to be done.
Not a glove. Take an inside-out baggie. Grab item and reset baggie to outside out with a brick snap of the wrist.
Also, take maybe a rubber band.
And some hand cleaner.
Somebody needs to tell that to the guy who walks his dog across the street from my office.
I must say that when we would visit Dianne’s family and friends in Toronto and stop at the border “duty-free” shop that I had no idea this is what should have been involved.
I’m sorry Thanh, I shouldn’t joke.
Do you know approximately how many dogs are in the city? The number of dog licenses would likely be a good indicator. Then if you average the amount of dog food consumed it would be a fair estimate of the dry weight of the waste produced.
So, if 1,000 dogs consume 20 lb. of dry food per week, you could easily figure 20,000 lb. of dry waste produced.
Here’s where the humor leaves the situation for if not properly disposed of, the waste ends up in stream water….
I just now followed the link you provided to see that there are estimated to be more than 10,500 dogs in the burg.
That 10,500 number is higher than the number of licenses, but takes into account a low estimation of unlicensed animals.
If you do the math (which we do on our materials) the average dog creates about 200 pounds of feces a year, mutiply that by 10,000 and you get a lot of poop in our watershed. It’s also just gross to leave dog poop lying around.
Emmy (or others), if you’d like t-shirts, we do have them for the low, low price of ten dollars, all proceeds go to producing more materials for the campaign. Anyone interested can drop me an email. They’re really nice shirts, I wear mine when I do yard work.
when cleaning up after the best friend, i always went with yesterday’s DNR. wait for the squat, slide the front page under, instant gratification.
And a thorough smile at the irony this technique produces.