As part of Gwinnett Clean & Beautifuls ongoing partnership with Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, the Great Gwinnett Wetlands program seeks to grow awareness and promote the stewardship of local wetlands and water resources. For the second year in a row, a very special education and engagement event has been planned on the banks of Bromolow Creek in Duluth. Volunteers are being sought to take part in the 2nd Annual Great Gwinnett Wetlands event on Saturday, April 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Throughout the day, there will be plenty of opportunities for participants to engage in hands-on learning, including monitoring the water quality and health of the Bromolow Creek wetland, picking-up litter that act as pollutants, and removing invasive plants that could overrun the wetland.
Through Great Gwinnett Wetlands, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful and Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources hope to promote awareness of the wetlands that funnel into our streams, rivers and lakes, while creating a sense of ownership and collective responsibility among local citizens, explained Bartow Morgan, Chairman of the Board for Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful (GCB). Its vital that we all work together to protect and maintain these wetlands and precious water sources like the Chattahoochee River, Yellow River and Lake Lanier. They are a direct link to the health of our environment and the viability of our way of life.
Great Gwinnett Wetlands was designed to be more than a once-a-year cleanup event. While wetland stewardship is at the heart of the event through the removal of litter and invasive plant species, it also involves vital data collection to examine the water quality and living things that make up the wetland in order to gauge the success of Gwinnett Clean & Beautifuls efforts. There is also a very important educational component to teach participants and the general public about what a wetland is and why it is important.
Sumner Gann, Interim Executive Director for Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful had this to say about the program, People should care about wetlands not only because they act as sponges that absorb and store water, thereby preventing flooding, but also because they are the filters that protect our streams and lakes. If they are properly taken care of, the special plants and soil in wetlands can filter out the majority of the pollutants that rainwater washes into them from our streets and yards. This ecological service protects the water quality, cleanliness and beauty of our waterways.
As a thank you for their participation in Great Gwinnett Wetlands, all volunteers will receive a specially designed t-shirt to commemorate the program. Volunteers must be 14 years of age or older to participate in Great Gwinnett Wetlands. Volunteers under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult. All volunteers are asked to bring a completed Volunteer Registration form with them to the event which is available for download at the GCB website at www.GwinnettCB.org. For the safety of its volunteers, GCB recommends that participants wear long pants and shirts they wont might getting dirty, as well as waterproof, closed-toed shoes or sneakers.
