Trash along a pedestrian walkway in Bridgeport, Mich. Image: Diana Popp Rossiter
Diana Popp Rossiter took this image in early June during a walk through Lyle Park in Bridgeport Township, about six miles southeast of Saginaw.
The pedestrian trail starts at a restored historic bridge across the Cass River in downtown Bridgeport and extends through Lyle Park which runs along side the Cass River.
“Running alongside the trail is a railroad track and between the tracks and trail is a low area of land,” Popp Rossiter writes. “That low area of land is filled with trash that has been dumped by polluters over the years and also trash that gets deposited there every year by the flood waters.
“This trash includes seven tires that are usually sitting there with water in them serving as a mosquito breeding source.”
She’s been writing about the trash under the pseudonym Carla Citizen on her Bridgeport Musings blog.
“I have been hoping to get someone interested in doing something to get this mess cleaned up,” she said. “This area was at one time a beautiful wilderness area. We have a large wetland here, the Cass River that runs through Bridgeport and then flows to the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.
“I have lived here all my life and have been coming to this area along the river for 50 plus years and it breaks my heart to see what has happened to it and to see it left in these conditions.”
Have an environmental image you’ve taken somewhere within the Great Lakes region and that you’d like to submit for Echo’s Photo Friday series? Send it to greatlakesecho@gmail.com along with the photographer’s name and town of residence, approximate date it was taken, where it was taken and a little bit of description of what we’re looking at. Context – how you happened to take it or whether there were physical or technical challenges in capturing it – is also helpful.