Travis County around November is the time of the year when the earth begins to fall to sleep, maybe thats why this season is called ‘Fall.’ With the rains that were brought this month and the cool air that followed, the Greenbelt’s creek filled back up again and so did the Greenbelt’s people. Its interesting to see the changes and new additions to the trail as people walk them more frequently.
When I usually walk the Greenbelt the creek tends to make one or two bags of dog poop along the trail, but this month I’d pass at least one every five minutes, and the poop that was not bagged I tended to step right on them. Wrappers from granola bars, cigarette buts and bags of dog poop littered the trail as we trekked on. I started bringing a trash bag with me on my second visit this month to pick up what I could. As I became upset with the what the beautiful weather brought to the greenbelt I thought back to one of Leopold’s quotes about human impact,
“The trophy-recreationist has peculiarities that contribute in subtle ways to his own undoing. To enjoy he must possess, invade, appropriate.”
-Natalie