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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The World Wildlife Fund of Canada is once again looking for volunteers across Canada to pick up a garbage bag and rubber gloves and lend a hand in the 18th annual Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, taking place Sept. 17-25.

An aerial view of clean Frame Lake shorelines taken on Aug. 3 shows the goal of efforts by volunteers to keep lake shorelines clean and eradicate harm to animals and the environment through events like the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. - Heather Lange/NNSL photo

Tony Maas, the World Wildlife Fund Canada director of freshwater programs, sees the cleanup as a great opportunity for citizens to get involved in keeping their local bodies of water healthy.

"The objective is to really get Canadians out participating in cleaning up their local shorelines and to learn more about what it takes to keep shorelines and fresh water ecosystems, rivers, lakes, streams and the oceans clean for wildlife and their communities," said Maas.

Mass sees the shore cleanup project as being an introduction into becoming more engaged with local water issues.

"If you bring people to the water's edge once a year through this initiative to help clean up the shoreline, we have seen that people are becoming more engaged in additional efforts," said Maas.

He said additional efforts include learning more about local bodies of water, getting engaged in planning decisions around water issues or more broad restoration efforts.

Last year, there were 120 volunteers in the NWT with the Great Canadian Shore Cleanup.

Gillian Dawe-Taylor is the principal at St. Joseph School and has been co-ordinating cleanups for the last three years.

Dawe-Taylor said every year, the 100 students involved look forward to the event and it fits well with the school's mandate to instill a sense of what it is to be a part of ethical practices in managing natural resources.

In 2010, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup had 47,000 Canadians pick up 98,000 kilograms of litter, from 2,200 kilometres of Canadian shorelines.

"We are not exclusive to lakes or oceans. I live in Kitchener, Waterloo and there is a little creek that runs through my backyard and there is a small community group that has organized a cleanup for that creek.

"The fact that something dumped in my little creek can make it through the Grand River to the Great Lakes and then up the St. Lawrence to the ocean. So, something that is thrown into a little creek can end up impacting sea turtles in the ocean for example," said Maas.

To organize a cleanup, there is no specific requirements necessary, just a willingness to help and a form to fill out at the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup website.

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