Event 5: Somerset Woods

On August 4th, 2012, IMSOCIO met at Pine Grove School prior to observing nearby parks and woods.  We started with the woods behind the elementary school.  After walking through the woods for a little while, we found an extremely polluted stream.  We photographed what we found, including abandoned tires and broken bottles.

Here are reflections from a few of the students that participated in the event:

• “In today’s experience with ImSocio I realized that we seriously do have an unsafe community. Not only are sidewalks ruined, we have a stream that’s polluted in the back of an elementary school. Not only is it unsafe for us , it’s unsafe for the younger kids. As in my psychology class we are all mimicking one another. Which means if I see someone do something I’m most likely to do it too… depending on who I am, I’ll make the wiser choice. My suggestions from here on out is to contact the Franklin township municipal and ask to see if something can be done about it. If we want some change we have to do something, and not wait until it gets worse.” -K. Cruz

• “Being able to go behind what the average driver sees on the road is an experience that will inevitably open your eyes. This supposedly empty gallon of gasoline was probably thrown from a passing vehicle’s window. It is a dangerous hazard to have and shows the lack of caring from individuals. There was much more garbage here than there should have been. That fact means that a change must be made. We as humans seem to justify our obtuse actions by saying that this little garbage won’t harm anyone. This excuse is very ignorant. IMSOCIO has helped me and many more to open our minds and more importantly, our eyes. This township hides under a guise to the outside world. Once we unmask it and explore it more thoroughly, the flaws are visible. We as civilized people of this township cannot stand by and watch as this once opulent area continues to be worsened in state. We shouldn’t continue to perpetuate the situation. Instead of musing with the idea of having a clean riverside once again, we should make it into an action. Our only adversary is ourselves.” -L. Jimenez

• “Although the mosquitoes and the hot weather were quite unpleasant, we managed to scavenge all the way into the stream and make it back up safely. It was enjoyable experience overall and we gathered pictures of what we saw. With careful planning it should be an even better experience for next time. :)” -D. Bustamante

• “Just looking at the river today showed me how the IMSocio group has to open the eyes of many others. All the trash that I saw today was just disturbing. You would think that more people in our community would actually take time and care to look after this river! Just think if everyone got together the river would be something so, beautiful, and a great place to fish or pass time with your family. This experience this past Saturday has personally showed me that my community needs to become a better environment. There needs to be more people who actually want to make a change in our habitat. All this trash in the river just shows that people could care less or maybe they are not aware of what pollution can cause to the Earth. I personally think that the IMSocio group should go out and inform Franklin Township about pollution and how we can make a huge impact and difference in our environment.” -J. Gomez

• “Saturday’s experience taught me how careless people can be and how a small amount of debris that piles on can affect an environment like the streams. This poses a lot of implications like the one we faced on saturday, when one of IMSocio’s member slipped and and almost fell.” -J. Juarez

• “Saturday’s experience made me think about how people think if they throw a water bottle, it is not significant. That makes other people think its okay to throw away their own trash and what I thought was a gas tank. I thought that we should inform people about what we saw and try to clean the area so that people can use it to hike or bike through maybe even use it as camping site. Overall we should do something about it, the sooner the better for us and for the environment and animals.” -K. Greene

• “Saturday really opened my eyes, we have a lot of careless people living around our area. I’m a careless person and I pollute on occasion, like on days when I don’t feel like getting up and throwing a piece of plastic in a recycling bin. Unfortunately, we are all surrounded by unpleasant people like myself. In fact most of you might have polluted such an area because you think places like that shouldn’t matter, or we just don’t have the courtesy of respecting the environment. I’ve walked in there before but never really took the time to realize how awful it looks. If we do something about this, like pick up the garbage and clean the river, we can actually make this place better looking and have little kids come and experience nature in a whole new way. In a way you and I have never experienced before. We can totally make a project of actually going in there with the right clothes and the right tools to clean this place. We can give back to the community. The place where we live.” -Y. Reategui

• “I had a great time with Dr. Im and everyone from the IMSOCIO group what I learned on Saturday was that how people could be so careless and litter everywhere, not knowing how dangerous it could be for the wild animals like deer, rabbits and squirrels. Also, When people pollute, not only does it harm the animals’ habitat, but it harms the earth and our environment. We as humans, when we see things like pollution, and we see people polluting, our instincts give off a sense that tells us, “Oh, if they do it then it’s okay.” That is why there are laws and fines on dumping garbage in certain places. The purpose of IMSOCIO is to give examples and to show our society what the outcomes of polluting are. We hope these images show how pollution is slowly damaging our planet, and changing people’s minds about littering.” -C. Morales