Clean North

06/02/2026

Instead of adding clover, convert part of your lawn to native plants. We have tips for how to do that!

https://www.cleannorth.org/2024/05/03/why-and-how-to-lose-your-lawn/

06/02/2026

06/01/2026

That perfect green lawn may come at a cost. Lawn chemicals can harm people, pets, pollinators, wildlife, and local waterways — and they are not necessary for a healthy yard! 🌱🐝🐕 Skip the “w**d and feed” cycle and try safer alternatives like compost, taller grass, hand w**ding, and native plants. A slightly imperfect lawn is far better than a toxic one.

Read more: https://www.cleannorth.org/2023/06/06/using-less-lawn-chemicals-can-reduce-harm-to-people-pets-and-ecosystems/

05/29/2026

The Great Lakes have some of the highest documented levels of microplastics in the world, posing a risk to aquatic creatures as well as swimmers. We can help including by installing traps on our washing machines and reducing purchase of new synthetic clothing. Natural fibre clothing is better, as is used clothing because much of the detachable fibre material is already gone.

This week, Dr. Kennedy Bucci, our Litter Free Lakes Coordinator and Postdoctoral Fellow, attended a joint conference between the International Association of Great Lakes Research and the Society of Canadian Aquatic Sciences in Winnipeg. She presented the results of two years of monitoring the LittaTraps in Thunder Bay.

Every year, an estimated 70,000 pounds of plastic waste ends up in Lake Superior. One of the predominant pathways of plastic pollution into aquatic ecosystems is stormwater runoff, where precipitation travels over impervious surfaces into storm drains and eventually into local waterways. With LittaTraps, we are employing a novel stormwater filtration device installed in storm drains to passively capture physical pollutants.

45.1% of litter captured in storm drains consisted of cigarette butts and tobacco-related products, and city parks are a major hotspot. Working with local municipal authorities, we hope to improve waste management in city parks and improve location-specific messaging.

Thanks Kennedy, for sharing your findings at this conference and inspiring others to consider implementing LittaTraps in their cities!

05/28/2026

Did you know that the lawn is the most water-hungry “crop” in North America? We silly humans use more water for lawns than for corn, wheat, or soybeans! In a time of extreme droughts, this is cray-cray! In return, we get a high-maintenance patch of green that we mow, water, chemically treat (repeat repeat repeat!) just to keep it looking like nothing lives there. So how about we all learn how to “lose the lawn” (without losing our mind): https://www.cleannorth.org/2024/05/03/why-and-how-to-lose-your-lawn/. Lawns come with hidden costs:

💧 heavy water use
🧪 fertilizers + pesticides that kill bees and butterflies and can affect human health
⛽ gas-powered air and noise pollution thanks to mowers

The better option? Start replacing—not all at once, but piece by piece:

🌼 Plant native species – they’re adapted to northern Ontario and support pollinators. Think: wild strawberry, Canada anemone, wild bergamot, swamp milkw**d, Joe Pye w**d, goldenrods, pearly everlasting, black-eyed Susan.
🌿 Use native groundcovers instead of grass where possible. Try: bunchberry, bearberry, foamflower, large-leaved aster, or wild ginger.
🪨 Create no-mow zones with mulch, stone, or simple garden beds.
🍓 Grow something edible—herbs, berries, or veggies right where your lawn used to be. One of our volunteers turned part of her front yard into a wild strawberry patch!
🌳 Add shrubs or trees like red or sugar maple, serviceberry, or red-osier dogwood for shade and habitat.

Even small changes add up. A yard doesn’t have to be a monoculture—it can be alive with bees, butterflies, birds, and other wild creatures. But they need habitat, and lawns are not it!

05/27/2026

When is Clean North's 2026 giveaway of Christmas tree mulch?
Saturday, June 6 from 9 am to noon outside the George Leech Centre at Algoma University.
Questions? Read this blog post: https://www.cleannorth.org/2024/05/15/get-mulch-from-clean-north-on-may-25/.

05/26/2026

Lake Superior during a storm is not something that photographs prepare you for and not something that words fully capture after you have seen it, but the attempt is worth making because what happens on that lake when the weather turns is one of the most genuinely powerful natural spectacles available anywhere in the interior of North America. When Arctic systems cross Superior's 350 mile fetch of open water the lake builds energy the entire way and releases it on the Michigan shoreline in waves that have been measured above 30 feet, freshwater swells that arrive with the same force and the same indifference as ocean storm surf and that make the word lake feel completely inadequate for what is actually happening out there.

The physics behind Superior storm waves are straightforward and the results are extraordinary. The lake is large enough and deep enough to behave oceanically during major weather events, generating its own wind patterns and wave trains that build independently of what the surrounding atmosphere is doing. Water temperatures stay cold enough year round that the density of Superior's water gives those waves a mass and an impact that anyone standing on the shoreline during a major blow feels physically in their chest before they hear it clearly. The ground shakes. The spray reaches heights that seem impossible for a lake. The sound is something between thunder and something older than thunder that has no good name.

The Pictured Rocks shoreline and the Keweenaw Peninsula take the full force of Superior's northwest storms and the results are simultaneously terrifying and extraordinary. Ice forms on the cliffs during winter storms in layers that build into formations so dramatic that people travel specifically to see them. The lighthouse at Whitefish Point has been marking the most dangerous stretch of Superior's Michigan shoreline since 1849 and the ships sitting on the bottom nearby are evidence of what happens when the lake decides the weather forecast was optimistic. Superior has claimed over 350 vessels across the history of Great Lakes navigation and every single one of them encountered something that the people aboard likely did not fully believe was possible until it was happening.

Michigan's relationship with Lake Superior storm waves is not fear exactly, though fear is the reasonable response from anyone encountering it for the first time. It is the specific kind of respect that develops between people and forces that are genuinely beyond human scale, the understanding that something enormous and ancient and completely indifferent to human presence is out there doing what it has always done and will continue doing long after everyone watching from the shore is gone. Superior storms are Michigan at its most raw and most honest and standing on that shoreline while the lake does what it does is one of the most clarifying experiences this state has to offer.

05/25/2026

A ROUND OF APPLAUSE, PLEASE! During the week leading up to Mother's Day, several individuals, families, and organizations did litter cleanups as part of our Mothers for Mother Earth campaign! The goal was to try to de-emphasize buying stuff and focus on giving back to Mother Earth. We are so grateful for every person who picked up even just one piece of litter. We urge people to please not litter so we can put our Mothers for Mother Earth campaign out of business. As much as we love the positivity of this initiative, we hope one day it will no longer be needed.

Thanks to everyone who picks up litter in Sault Ste. Marie/Algoma District. We know there are many of you civic-minded folks out there, and we offer you all our kindest regards.

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05/25/2026

While popular internet myths claim that opossums are natural "tick vacuums," recent research shows they do not actively hunt them. Instead, the real heavy lifting falls to a mix of domestic birds, wild foragers, and tiny backyard predators.

Domestic poultry—especially guinea fowl, chickens, and ducks—are the true champions, systematically scanning the grass to snap up adult ticks. In the wild, ground-foraging birds like wild turkeys, grouse, and quail scratch through leaf litter to find hidden pests, while amphibians and reptiles, including toads, frogs, and small lizards, gulp down any ticks that cross their paths. Even closer to the soil, a micro-army of ants, predatory beetles, and wolf spiders actively hunts and consumes tick larvae and eggs before they can hatch.

Supporting a diverse ecosystem is far more effective for natural pest control. And this means stopping using lawn chemicals including chemical fertilizers, which can harm the small creatures that live in your lawn.