 Youth Employment Services have found tires and a variety of other items in Duluth Streams including: • tape recorders • shopping carts • pop cans • suit cases • old bus seats • crib matresses • full bags of garbage • lawn debris |
Annual Stream Cleaning
Each summer, the City of Duluth Stormwater Utility tackles the on-going effort to
maintain the 42 streams flowing through the City. A team lead by a Utility Operations
employee and composed of youth employed through the YES (Youth Employment Services)
walks the local streams removing debris and garbage and identifying problems such as
questionable discharges or broken pipes along the streams.
Secret Wilderness
Despite the garbage, the creeks remain secret wildernesses within the City. The young
cleaning crews have seen fawn not more than two weeks old, lots of deer, bears and
lots of bear droppings, many eagles and hawks, and signs of other residential small
animals. Even the small streams have fishes - minnows in the 1 to 3 inch range. In
larger streams the crew has seen trout and throughout the streams a healthy population
of crayfish. The creeks host a variety of vegetation. Flowers boarder the creeks and
in the still ponds the crews have found blooming water lilies. The young people enjoy
the adventure of exploring a wilderness within the City and also acquire an increased
awareness of the potential humans have to destroy these environments.