‘It’s pretty remarkable’: Volunteers pitch in to clean up the Don Valley

As a cold April wind blasted the Don Valley, hundreds of volunteers bundled up and got to work cleaning up thousands of kilograms of trash.

For a second year, the “Don’t Mess With the Don” program called on volunteers to help reverse the damage done by years of illegal dumping.

Setting to work over 10 ravines and two flat areas near the Thorncliff Park area of the Don Valley, the task ahead of them was not small.

Lawrence Warriner is one of the co-founders of the organization, which has been informally cleaning garbage for years. But in recent years, he said they’ve been able to connect more groups into more organized efforts. So much so, this weekend’s clean-up, he said, had around 800 volunteers taking part.

The commitment of those helping pull off the feat isn’t lost on him. As each group of volunteers pass by, Warriner offers them his sincere thanks.

“It’s a stunning community effort,” he said.

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Many of those pitching in are avid users of the Don Valley like Mark Graham. Just seeing the amount of trash close up, he said, left him feeling “sad and angry.”

Graham said everyone — as a citizen of both the city and the world — has a commitment to be responsible with their trash.

“You see a lot of disposable coffee cups, you see a lot of Halloween candy wrappers,” he said “You think about the single-use, there’s a real impact.”

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Even after using the Don Valley regularly, Tracy Dunkley was shocked to see how much garbage was hidden in the ravines.

“I usually come out here when the leaves are out and you don’t see anything really,” Dunkley said.

But with a burlap sack overloaded with trash, including the broken neck of a guitar, Dunkley said the sheer amount of waste is “mind-boggling.”

It may be eye-opening for some volunteers, but for other like Greg Wilson, it’s a source of anger.

“I would like everyone who complained about that five cent tax on disposable bags to come out here and see what they’ve done,” he said.

It’s not hard to understand Wilson’s frustration. While leaves haven’t sprung from branches, several patches of trees are anything but bare. But in the absence of greenery, plastic bags blow in the wind from where they’ve gotten stuck in the forest canopy.

Even those willing to give the benefit of the doubt like Jennifer Heynes only have so much tolerance for trash.

“I think it’s really sad,” she said “Some garbage spill I think is accidental, but a lot of this can be avoided and I wish people would just be more proactive daily.”

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As discouraging as it may be to see one ravine cleared of garbage only to find another teeming with it, volunteer Dale Larkin has some words of encouragement to keep going: “every little bit helps.”

But with so many helping, Warriner said their progress is making a difference.

“It’s like watching the valley re-emerge,” he said, pointing to a group of volunteers working high up one ravine.

“Watching the garbage line go up as the volunteers go up is truly remarkable,” he said.