Glen Echo Mentioned in Cbus Alive Article

I was searching for results from any cleanups that may have happened this past weekend and I came across this. Apparently, "David Maywhoor, executive director of the Buckeye Forest Council, which will join several neighborhood groups in beautifying the Glen Echo Ravine.". I am going to contact this gentleman and see if we can't collaborate.

Update

The Glen Echo Ravine cleanup was this Saturday. I was unable to attend because I was working. From what I hear though, there is still plenty of trash to pick up. I am going to start cleaning up the section of ravine behind my house today. The weather has been great so I should get started. If you are at all interested in helping send me a message via facebook.

Dumpster Diving FAQ

I was thinking more about dumpster diving and found this sweet FAQ. I have never dumpster dived before but I've known people who have. My sister and some friends I had in Boston. They used to dive behind Trader Joes after it closed and said it was always a good find but if the cops came we'd have to run. I never got a chance to dive with them but I always wanted to. Anything where you have to run from the cops has to be fun!

Cool Site

I was doing a google search for free dumpsters in Columbus and found this cool page on dumpster diving. I always thought that dumpster diving was pretty cool, I'm sure a lot of sweet stuff gets thrown away.

Ohio EPA Scrap Tire Program

I just found a site for the Ohio EPA's Scrap Tire Program. I will be sure to utilize this. I have seen quite a few tires down in the ravine.....

Cbus Underground Earth Day 2008 Thread

Here is a link to the Columbus Underground thread on Earth Day 2008. It has a lot of good information on it about activities going on this saturday (26 april).

Cbus Dispatch Article

The Columbus Dispatch published an article on March 24 about the large amount of litter that collects during the winter and is revealed in the spring. I also found yet another resource in this article, Keep Ohio Beautiful. I'll be contacting them asap.

Ohio Department Of Natural Resources Cleanup Website

The ODNR has a list of several cleanups at local state parks. This would be a great opportunity for us to keep our parks clean for future generations.

Potential New Resources

I have just found the Clintonville Community Resources Center. I am going to contact them to see if they might want to get involved.

First Cleanup on April 26

The organization Friends of the Ravines is having a cleanup on 26 April. I am trying to get as many people as possible to show up. I will have more details shortly on when the cleanup starts and how to get there.

Response to email thus far

I have already received responses from Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW)and Central Ohio Sustainability Alliance. COSA is going to donate pickers, gloves and plastic trash bags. FLOW is already pretty booked this season but gave me some contact information for Friends of the Ravines. So the next step is to communicate with COSA on obtaining the donated supplies and contacting Friends of the Ravines to see what we can do together!

Email to Columbus Parks and Recreation, Friends of the Ravine, Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed and Central Ohio Sustainability Alliance

This is a copy of the email I sent to the aforementioned organizations:


"Hello,

I am contacting you because I am trying to organize a cleanup of the ravine beginning at Glen Echo Park and ending where the ravine ends behind Tim Hortons near the Arcadia Ave. and High St. intersection. This is an ambitious project, which is why I need your help. Any resources or contacts you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I am aware of the cleanup on April 26 that Friends of the Ravines is organizing. I would like to help with this cleanup, I may be able to get participation from some student organizations at Ohio State as well. I feel that this cleanup on the 26th can be a good start and perhaps we could have more scheduled cleanups on subsequent weekends. We will definitely need a dumpster, there is a lot of big trash down there.

Let me know what you think. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jeremiah Moore"

City of Columbus Service Request

I found a way to make a city service request for things like bulk pick ups and the like. I am going to pursue this in hopes of a dumpster or other supplies. Here is the website.

NEWS!

The FTP Meeting was good. They seemed enthusiastic about helping out. Apparently, they wanted to clean Glen Echo Park last year for Earth Day but weren't able to do it. They saw my project as a potential opportunity to reconcile. One thing that came up was when was I going to actually do the clean up. Here's a list of what I need to do:

1.Pick a date/dates
2.Obtain Donations (Gloves, Trash Bags, Dumpster)
3.Collaborate with local organizations
4.Advertise / Get the word out
5.CLEAN THE RAVINE!

If you check out the links on my page there are a few organizations I have found that may be interested in helping out. I am going to be contacting them soon and will maintain updates.

FTP Meeting

I am going to the Free The Planet meeting tonight. It is at 730 at Kafe Kerouac, a sweet place by the way. Hopefully I will be able to convince them to collaborate with me on this project. I'll update soon to let you know how it goes!

Emminent Domain?

A concern that I had not previously considered before is that there are more than likely homeless individuals residing within this ravine. The very "trash" that I am attempting to remove could be their homes! It kind of puts the saying "one mans trash is another mans treasure" into perspective. I would appreciate any suggestions you may come up with.

My Blog is now set up for easy RSS feed setup!

For those of you who are interested in this blog an easy way to stay updated is to monitor my blog through an RSS reader. If you already have a google account it will be super simple. Simply click on The orange button at the upper right corner of my blog and add it to your reader!

Blood Bowl

I had mentioned earlier that the area at the end of the ravine was known as the "Blood Bowl". I first heard of this from a mutual friend. He told me that Skateboarders would attempt to do a 360 inside the pipe and one of them cracked their dome. Hence the name blood bowl. Check out the video below for a great example of what it probably looked like.I've never seen anyone skating down there but it seems believable. I googled Columbus, Ohio and Blood Bowl and found this page: . According to illicitohio.com (a pretty sweet site) this area is also known as "The Gates of Hell".

This is a big job............

Yesterday I walked down into the ravine with a couple of friends. It's pretty bad. There is a lot of bigger stuff that will be a pain to move out. And if we are going to clean the entire ravine from Glen Echo Park to the Blood Bowl (I'll explain that location later) it is going to take a few different meetings and some organization/planning. I emailed OSU Free the Planet (http://freetheplanet.arawakcity.org/) to see if they were interested in helping and they invited me to their meeting next Tuesday @ 730. They don't know where it is being held yet, come check it out if you're interested. I'm also going to ask a few schools and fire/police departments for assistance. If you have any ideas let me know.