Lakers clean up Grand Haven State Park

Students from Grand Valley’s Geology department spent a Saturday morning at Grand Haven State Park picking up trash as part of the Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach program.

More than 60 students from professor Tara Kneeshaw’s environmental geology class joined more than 6,000 people throughout the Great Lakes region for the clean up efforts September 20. In total, 9,384 pieces of trash were collected from the park, including more than 4,000 pieces of plastic.

Kneeshaw said prior to the clean-up, her students researched major pollutants in the Great Lakes watershed and found one of the more surprising items to be the amount of plastic.

“I think the reality of the situation was more meaningful to them once they had to document the types of trash they collected and discovered how much plastic waste was on just one beach,” said Kneeshaw.

While the work benefited the Adopt-a-Beach organization, Kneeshaw says her main goal in recruiting her students was to use the activity as an educational opportunity.

“The students are currently writing a reflection on their experience compared to what they’ve learned in class about the hydrologic cycle and some of the issues future generations will face with regards to both the quantity and quality of our freshwater resources,” said Kneeshaw.

For more than 40 years, the Alliance for the Great Lakes has worked to conserve and restore the purity of the Great Lakes, the world’s largest surface freshwater resource, by utilizing policy, education and community involvement.