Dr. Karen Bell

Keep Liberty Beautiful

This week, I had the opportunity to learn from some insightful webinars on the Keep America Beautiful website. The renowned researcher, author, and founder of Homegrown National Park, Doug Tallamy, led one particularly engaging session. 

His words, “Garden as if life depends on it because it does,” resonated deeply. His book “Nature’s Best Hope,” a New York Times bestseller in 2020, and his pioneering work on the role of native plantings in combating species extinction are genuinely exceptional.

This weekend, in collaboration with the Girl Scouts, Liberty County Chamber, the Morning Glory Garden Club, and Keep Liberty Beautiful, we are embarking on a significant initiative. We are providing 50 five-gallon buckets for container gardens to families in Liberty County, a project that will not only beautify our community but also promote the importance of gardening. Keep Liberty Beautiful is also working on the Pollinator-Friendly Butterfly Garden at the Liberty County Community Complex in Midway. The Morning Glory Garden Club has enhanced this garden, and if you have not taken the time to visit, you should. Another garden I visited with my grandson Bryce was the Diversity Community Garden. I am sure that our friends with wings are happy that there are places they can go. Our pollinators are what give life to plants and trees. Their flight helps with what we eat and the beauty we enjoy.

August 23 and 24 is the Great Pollinator Census, a crucial event that KLB is using to celebrate all pollinators do and raise awareness about how litter can harm them! On Saturday, August 24, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Keep Liberty Beautiful Office in Midway, we will have pollinator activities and demonstrate how the census works. This is a great opportunity for the community to come together and learn about the importance of our pollinators. Light snacks will be served.

Ready to make a difference? Here are some ideas on how you can make pollinators’ jobs a lot easier and tips to grow a pollinator garden and keeping the area clean: With all the rain falling this summer, any litter on the ground can harm our gardens and waterways. Stormwater picks up and carries various pieces of litter into our waterways and can get caught in gardens. Any amount of litter can cause problems, no matter the amount. One of the smallest but most significant contributors to Stormwater pollution is cigarette butts. Local Coastal Communities have come together with the Georgia Coast Is Not An Astray initiative in hopes of educating smokers.

Many smokers do not believe cigarette butts are litter. According to Keep America Beautiful (KAB), Americans smoke fewer cigarettes than ever. Yet, cigarette butts continue to be the most littered item in the United States and around the world today.

KAB stated the main two reasons for this are the lack of awareness on the smoker’s part and the lack of availability of waste receptacles at transition locations, such as outside stores and other buildings, and at public transportation pickup spots. Surprisingly, 77% of people in a survey by KAB responded that they didn’t think of cigarette butts as litter. KAB also notes that for every public cigarette butt receptacle, cigarette litter drops by 9% in that area. When it rains, cigarette butts left on the ground can end up in our waterways and other places they should not be. The cumulative effects of stormwater runoff on water bodies are evident in our waterways and in our gardens.

Uncontrolled stormwater runoff has many cumulative impacts on humans and the environment, including:

• Flooding - Damage to public and private property • Eroded streambanks - Sediment clogs waterways, fills lakes, reservoirs, kills fish, and aquatic animals

• Widened stream channels - Loss of valuable property

• Aesthetics - Dirty water, trash, and debris, foul odors

• Fish and aquatic life Impaired and destroyed

• Impaired recreational uses - Swimming, fishing, boating

• Threatens public health - Contamination of drinking water, fish/ shellfish

• Economic impacts – Impairments to fisheries, shellfish, tourism, recreation-related businesses

• Increased cost of water and wastewater treatment - Stormwater pollution increases raw water treatment costs. It reduces the assimilative capacity of water bodies.

Excess stormwater causes flooding and damage that is difficult and costly to clean up.

I hope you take the time to visit a garden or start one yourself and remember that the litter you put on the ground can harm our environment. To find ways to make a difference, check out our website: www. keeplibertybeautiful.org. To participate in the Great Pollinator Census, don’t hesitate to contact us at Keep Liberty Beautiful at (912) 880-4888 or klcb@libertycountyga.com to get involved today.