As Dan Scheiman showcased a muskrat pelt and turtle shell Saturday, he was momentarily distracted by a gray hairstreak butterfly.
He watched the butterfly descend on a patch of grass, then flit away.
"Birds are my profession," Scheiman explained. "Butterflies are my hobby."
Scheiman, the bird conservation director for Audubon Arkansas, manned a table covered in fur, wings and papery snakeskin at Benny Craig Park. Saturday was the Fourche Fest, which drew people to the park for some fun, and also some education.
Every animal on Scheiman's table can be found in or near Fourche Creek, which runs through the park, he said. That includes 188 species of birds, like bald eagles and Mississippi kites, 79 species of fish and even 25 species of dragonflies.
"These animals wouldn't be in Little Rock without Fourche Creek," Scheiman said.
Yet the creek is a frequent dumping site for rubbish. When there's flooding, trash is carried into the creek's basin. In 2013, Friends of Fourche Creek was formed to help keep the waterway clean and educate people about the effects of littering.
Kathy Kline has lived in the neighborhood near Fourche Creek since 1991. Kline, who was watching people canoe on Saturday, said she spends a good portion of her time picking up trash from the creek banks.
Some of the dumping is done on purpose. Some is done by drivers who pause for a passing train at the nearby railroad tracks and decide to clean out their cars, Kline said.
Bottles are among the most common items found in the water, or nearby, though uncommon items also have popped up. Once, someone spotted some pornography, Kline said. Thankfully, it was found by "older teenagers, and they just laughed," she said.
Cowper Chadbourn lives in Conway but makes frequent trips to clean Fourche Creek. An average day will result in the collection of 500 to 1,000 pounds of trash, he said.
Tires are a frequent problem. A lot of people don't know there are legal and free avenues to dispose of them. Occasionally, the situation gets dire.
"It only takes one disreputable dealer to put 200 tires in [the water] over a week or two," Chadbourn said.
But the most difficult litter offense is probably plastic foam. Chadbourn reached down and picked up a chunk as large as his hand.
"It's this big now. In a few weeks, it will be this big," Chadbourn said while ripping the chunk into tiny, hard-to-pick-up fragments that won't decompose for potentially hundreds of years.
Though cleanups can be effective, junk accumulates quickly. Stemming the tide of trash would take a systemic change, like a ban on plastic bags, Chadbourn said. Some cities like Seattle and Austin, Texas, have enacted such bans.
"Some of that is coming," he said. "It just needs to come faster."
For the time being, Chadbourn will continue to pick up debris whenever he sees it. As he observed canoes gliding on the creek, another person on cleanup duty walked past Chadbourn and showed him a discarded item that he had just picked up. It was a dirty needle.
"We hope it was a diabetic," Chadbourn said. "But you never know."
Metro on 06/03/2018