On September 26th, join us to celebrate Public Lands Day with a cleanup of the Saint Lawrence River shoreline.
National Public Lands Day celebrates the promotion and conservation of public natural spaces. Until now, it has been confined to the United States. But land conservation demands more than national attention. The Saint Lawrence River, for example, plays an essential role in our ecosystem. It begins in the Great Lakes and flows from the United States through Canada until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. The river thus represents a shared environment that surpasses borders and requires international stewardship. Most importantly, the Saint Lawrence River has a right to be conserved.
So this year, in solidarity with National Public Lands Day, and in order to promote the conservation and rights of the Saint Lawrence River, we will break national boundaries to foster more effective land stewardships. Here in Montreal, Quebec, our teams will comb through our local shorelines for our first annual cleanup–picking up trash and waste in hopes of managing threats to the ecological integrity of the river.
But Montreal is not nearly enough. And so, the International Observatory of the Rights of Nature invites you to join us in extending this conservation effort across Quebec and Ontario. We invite you to join us by heading to your favourite spot along the river in order to participate in an inter-provincial shoreline cleanup. No amount of time is too little. If everyone contributes to the best of their abilities, we will make a difference. We encourage you to share this movement with all those who share the Saint Lawrence River. Invite your friends, family, local organizations, politicians, and all fellow stewards of the river to clean up their local shoreline. We also encourage you to take pictures and share your experience with as many people as possible. This way, not only will we clean up and conserve our beloved natural spaces, but we will also get the chance to see our beautiful river from different perspectives and raise awareness of what it means to share nature.
