Trying to keep Green River clean

A handful of unknown volunteers are working hard to keep the city’s Greenbelt and pipeline pathways clean.

One of those volunteers who wanted to remain anonymous, is Green River resident Terri Clawson. Clawson is known by some as the woman with the latex gloves who picks up the dog poop along the pipeline pathways and any other area in town she walks along.

“Wherever I go, I just find dog doo doo,” she said.

Clawson said she just doesn’t find the dog poop along the Greenbelt, but the pipeline pathway, which starts around Hitching Post and runs to West Teton, East Teton and past Harrison Elementary School.

This isn’t something Clawson set out to do, but one day as she was walking from the Green River High School she just started noticing the dog excrement everywhere.

“I don’t know if it’s just getting worse because I have been walking for years,” she said.

Clawson, who is helped by her husband when he joins her for walks, have only been picking up the dog excrement and putting it in grocery bag to throw away for about a month.

During her first clean-up effort, Clawson couldn’t believe just how many bags of the foul-smelling excrement she and her husband collected.

“The first time we started doing this, we got seven bags full,” she said.

While on her walks, she has to find big garbage cans to throw the bags in while she walks because they won’t fit in the pet bag collection and disposal areas throughout the pathways.

“The dog bag (stations) are all over,” she said.

Clawson then proceeded to list off at least seven locations where the dog bag stations are at. At the stations there are free dog baggies for residents to clean up after their dogs and a small bin to place the poo filled bag.

“If I’m carrying a big bag and it’s full, I have to find a bigger garbage bin somewhere,” she said.

Clawson just doesn’t understand why people don’t pick up after their pets.

She said that’s all part of being a responsible pet owner.

Being a responsible pet owner isn’t just about feeding, watering and providing shelter for an animal, it’s picking up after the animal.

Clawson also knows that are a lot of responsible pet owners who use the bag and pick up after their dogs.

She said she also knows there may be pet owners who are just not physically able to bend over and pick up after their animal and she understands that.

However, those that are able should pick up after their dogs.

For Clawson, it isn’t just about the dog poop. She said there are people on the pathway and Greenbelt who pick up just as much trash as she does poop. She wanted to make sure they were mentioned for doing their part in keeping this city clean, however she doesn’t know their names.

She only knows them as the man with the two big labradors or the lady with the small, black dog.

“God created the world. It’s our job to take care of it and we’re not doing a very good job,” she said.