The Day after Game Day

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This is part three of a three post series since there were three adventures back to back: 1.) Game Day 2.) Pretty Sloughs on Game Day 3.) The Day after Game Day.

My very first post on this blog was initiated by a bike ride two days after the first official 49ers football game. Needless to say, the creek has had quite the variety of activity. One week after that post, the creek was clean. Unfortunately, I was unable to witness who cleaned it since I was cleaning up a different body of water. Full of optimism, I thought the stadium and the creek were going to have a happy relationship. A few days later, Silicon Valley had a good rain for a few hours, which flooded the creek a few feet as to be expected. What was not to be expected from my six years of biking this trail daily and during rain was what would be floating in the creek. An endless stream of 2x4s, hoses, paint cans, bottles, and tarps floated by, not to mention the kiddie pool and extension ladder.

So without further ado, what was the creek like the day after a big game? It was pretty great, all in all, so kudos to the Levi's Stadium staff. It wasn't perfect, but it far exceeded the previous game.

The creek north of the stadium was once again quite clean - there was some type of ballard sunk in the middle, but extra low tide made it visible, and it has probably been there a while.

Here a great blue heron stands under the stadium bridges next to some water bottles, paint can (top right), and other floating debris that came from the rain, and NOT from the stadium.

One piece of trash visible, a few hidden in the grasses. That's pretty good Levi's.

The same location as my Twitter headlining image from the previous game. A few pieces of trash.

Here, close to the Hetch Hetchy pipes is where it's not perfect. There was a good bit of litter here - this good be leftover from missed trash in the parking lot. A huge parking lot with a low concentration of trash could blow still quite a bit into this creek.

This is litter of another variety that I'm not fond of seeing in the creek. Fortunately, I don't see quite as many cats as I used to, but when I do see them, they tend to be preying on the ducks and their ducklings.

This is the path just south of Agnew, outside of the stadium's domain, but still a foot traffic area during game day. Not to exonerate the individual who left this malt liquor bottle here, but there aren't any prominent trash cans around the trail - CORRECTION: there are in fact trash cans usually where the trail meets the street, I just missed them on this section of trail.

 I haven't seen these in a while, but I know these are regarded as one of the worst offending types of litter. While I didn't have the space to carry the malt liquor, I did put this in my pocket.

So there you have it. Part three of the series. The stadium looks like they have a very well run operation, and may just need the occasional reminder to management to make sure they pick up the litter in a timely fashion. If the progression continues like it did from the first to the second game, this creek will stay in amazing shape even with some large fraction of the 68.5 thousand fans crossing the bridges.

The cities that are part of this watershed and creek system, however, will need to step up and address the issues of dumping, litter along the creek path, and catching a first rains debris several times per year. I quite a bit more homework and reading to do before I put together another action plan, so stay tuned for that.

If you would like to contact me, my email address is levislitterbugs@yahoo.com.

 Thanks, Levi's Stadium.