We are the third, fourth and fifth-grade students who attended St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church’s Vacation Bible School program. We are writing because we want our neighbors to know about a problem at the Kasota Ponds.
On Wednesday, June 25, we met with representatives from the Friends of the Mississippi and the St. Anthony Park Community Council to learn about the importance of wetlands. We learned that wetlands act as natural sponges, filtering out pollution and preventing it from entering the Mississippi River. We then visited our local wetland, Kasota Ponds, and saw firsthand the garbage and other pollutants that have been dumped there. We were surprised to learn that the St. Anthony Park Community Council and community members had visited this same site and cleaned it up just a month earlier. From the amount of trash we saw—appliances, couches, toxic chemicals, televisions, and more—you would not have known any cleanup occurred. We worry about the impact of so much pollution on the wetland, its wildlife and our water.
Back at the church, we talked about possible solutions to help protect Kasota Ponds and prevent the dumping that is happening next to it. Our first idea was to let others know how much garbage is being dumped at this site (see the photo). We made posters to remind others that dumping garbage by these wetlands hurts our environment, including our water. We want others to know this is happening and to help us find ways to keep it clean.
We are also writing letters to the businesses that are near the pond. We are asking them to consider ways their employees can take time to clean up the garbage around the pond and to address dumping as they see it happening.
If everyone helps to keep it clean, maybe people won’t try to dump their garbage there.
St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church Vacation Bible School students
We recently visited the Kasota Ponds. We were shocked to see how much garbage and junk there was. We were even more shocked when we were told that they had cleaned up in the spring!
There was a sign that told people not to litter. There were chemicals that were spilled and dumped. A majority of the garbage had been dumped there by people who didn’t know animals and plants lived there.
Niamh, Maggie and Katherine, St. Anthony Park Lutheran Church
