Trash and ticks: It's all in an Earth Day

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Lilja team picked up 12 bags of trash yesterday around our office.

We worked nearly all the way around this little gem of a pond this year, realizing in the process it's fed by natural springs. The water was gin clear, as my Dad would have said. So it was satisfying work to beautify such a wonderful place (the Lilja office is in the left-hand corner).

Because we are close by a major highway, we find some unusual things, from construction debris and signage to abandoned clothing and remnants of fast food packaging. Most of what we find is plastic – bottle caps, tops for cups, etc. Each of us picked up cigarette butts before finally giving up. That work was endless and disheartening. Alex kept count and reached 1,000.

Among our most unusual finds: A rusted out button for the “29th ANNUAL WOODTICK RACES.” We experienced a few of our own: Alex ended up pulling off 30 ticks, Kadee, 5, Alicia 4, Mary & Mike, 0.

- Mary Lilja