I had planned a CITO at White Hawk Park, but after getting permission from the Omaha City Parks Dept, they later told me that it was not a city park, but instead controlled by the SID. That CITO was canceled and this takes its place.
This park is located at approximately 168th and Y St. We will work the wooded area of the park from end-to-end, thus the higher terrain rating. Depending on person power and trash level, we may need to focus on a particular area.
Poison ivy is potent year round, however, you do not usually encounter vines during the winter. It is unlikely that poison ivy leaves will be out yet and I did not see any poison ivy vines in the area, but for those that negatively react to PI, know these few things:
- Cover arms and legs
- Wash affected skin with COLD water and soap within about about an hour
- Wash clothes afterwards, as you can encounter PI oil later and react from that contact
- ALL parts of PI (e.g., roots, vines, branches, leaves, berries) may cause your skin to blister
- https://communityenvironment.unl.edu/poison-ivy
How to create a CITO
I wanted to share some things to consider when creating a CITO event. This information is for the Omaha area, but could be easily extended to other areas.
Permission
While you do not necessarily need permission to pick up trash on city property, why not let the city help you. If your GZ is on city property, and it does not seem to matter whether or not it is a park, you can contact Jenna at 402.444.4791 or jenna.kleine@cityofomaha.org. Jenna is the volunteer coordinator for Omaha Public Parks and Recreation. She can provide you with gloves and bags for the event and maybe other stuff.
Trash pickup
Jenna can also coordinate trash pickup at GZ. I asked Jenna to schedule a trash pickup for this GZ for Monday, 3/23.
Bags and gloves
Jenna will coordinate with the foreman to deliver bags for this event, to my house in the next week or two. Jenna can obviously do the same for your event OR you can drive downtown, find a place to park, go find Jenna, and walk away with the bags you need.
Finally, while there are a plethora of trashed places that need TLC, Jenna has other "opportunities" for cleanup, whether spreading mulch, possibly planting trees (she is checking into this), or painting structures. Just call Jenna to coordinate. Please review Groundspeak guidelines for setting up CITO events.
https://www.geocaching.com/cito/