Conservation is a "dirty job" as TV's Mike Rowe would say. But what job isn't? Most "clean jobs" are polluted by deadlines and unreal expectations, monotony and wage disputes, office politics, scope creep, moving goal posts, broken agreements, senseless rules, discrimination, not to mention the deterioration of health from sitting in a chair all day. Our Conservation Rangers can't clean up your job, but what we can do is restore the sanctity of your own backyard where Mother Earth provides a refuge and Nature can soothe your soul.
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The Great Conservationist President, Theodore Roosevelt (third from left)
Today, politicians on all sides came together to pass the largest boost to national conservation efforts in 50 years. The Great American Outdoors Act was described by senior officials as the "single largest investment in America’s national parks and public lands in United States history.”
Two words, "conservation" and "preservation" are related. Preservation is accomplished by keeping people out. Conservation is different. Conservation means to allow human activity while managing the impact on the land and wildlife to maintain the balance of nature. A conservationist could regain balance by putting the environment back to the way it was before being impacted.
If you live in Dallas-Fort Worth, you live in the Upper Trinity River Watershed – a broad depression that collects rain and run off, which eventually drains into the Trinity River. Though overlooked in past decades, environmentalists have realized that dog waste creates serious water quality issues. Waste accumulates on lawns and sometimes streets and sidewalks where rain may readily wash it into storm drains and into the nearest stream, creek or lake.
Back in May of 2009, on the day of the White Rock Festival Disaster, we created two demonstrations as a part of our community awareness campaign. Well, we finally turned our demonstrations into a video. Demonstration #1 explains why dog waste is not fertilizer. Demonstration #2 shows how easily dog waste can be brought inside your home based on a study done in 2008 by the University of Arizona.
How collectible will the Sgt Poopers t-shirt become? Possibly this new design will go down in history as one of America's iconic entrepreneural designs. Or possibly it will remain one of America's best kept secrets. Probably the latter.
If you see our staff wearing this t-shirt, please do not offer them thousands of dollars for it. You can get your own a lot cheaper by contacting us directly.
There will be no pooper scooping today (02/04/2011) in Dallas, due to a significant amount of snow on the ground.
There aren't many weather events that stop us from making our daily rounds. Lightning can sometimes stops us for a few minutes, but lightning storms are usually fleeting. We take a break for half an hour until the front passes through and the lightning dies down.
Once again we sponsored the Walk Wag Run and what a day it was. We did hundreds of demonstrations for residents stopping by our booth. Every visitors received tons of freebies given out by many of the booths, which included area pet stores and others related to the pet industry.
Last year (in 2008) at the White Rock Festival my wife and I joked about this event being cursed, because someone downwind from us failed to attach their tent to the ground, and when the wind picked up that afternoon, their tent lifted up off the ground, sailed 20 feet into the air and landed on our tent, breaking it. We laughed it off.
The Sgt Pooper booth was mobbed at the Strut Your Mutt this year. Apparently word has gotten out and people are really starting to see the advantages of having a clean, hassle-free yard all year-round.
Sgt Poopers was a sponsor for the annual Walk, Wag Run atop Flag Pole Hill. Lots of people visited our booth and learned that dog waste is a serious pollutant of area streams, creeks and lakes, including White Rock Lake.
Sgt Pooper sponsored the annual Mystic Mutts and Moonpies Festival. This free event was located at the White Rock Lake's Stone Tables Picnic Area (where Lake Highlands and Buckner Blvd interesect) just under the 75-year-old trees.
Sunlight, cigarettes, leaded paint, prescription drugs… supposedly “safe,” widely recommended, encouraged by doctors, friends and parents… and since proven oh just slightly detrimental to our health.
Sgt Poopers paid a visit to the City of Dallas Water Department — the government agency in charge of protecting water quality by in municipal creeks, streams and lakes.
This month Erica and I (owners of Sgt Poopers) joined up with Gary Spence and Tom Heath of For the Love of the Lake in the name of water quality management. For the Love of the Lake is a volunteer organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of White Rock Lake Park as an urban oasis.
At Sgt. Poopers we take responsibility for animals and the environment seriously. As "Park Rangers to the American Backyard" our mission is not just to safeguard human and pet health, maintain the balance of nature, and protect our land and water resources. But also to raise community awareness so others may also take more responsibility for the environment we all share.
Highland Park is the 3rd wealthiest location in Texas per capita. This pristine gem of a town has some of Dallas' most beautiful real estate including Turtle Creek and Hackberry Creek just to the east. In good weather, visitors come from across Dallas to drink in the beauty. Photographers drink in the scenery. However there's another group that comes here to drink... the water! Every creature needs a source of water to sustain life, and that's why rats are Highland Park's dirty little secret.
We Texans in general are misinformed on the subject of dog poop. When I mentioned to a Texas native that my wife and I owned a dog waste clean up company in Dallas, she thought it was a great idea. Then she told me a story about the time she was walking her dog over at a school and someone told her to get the dog off the school grounds. The school defender told my friend that her dog was a "filthy animal" and shouldn't be allowed to poop on school grounds because children play there.
When I first heard about the dog waste removal business, I thought its main value would be in removing the risk of stepping in something. The hazards of dog poop, to me, meant the rigors of having to clean the bottoms of my running shoes with a stick. Growing up in Dallas, Texas I had never even heard of such a business.
