Park staff and volunteers work to pick up polystyrene foam along Lake McDonald’s shores
Big Sky Watershed Corps members Adrianna Carter and Alex Spyropoulos pick up polystyrene foam on Lake McDonald's north shore. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
Big Sky Watershed Corps members pick up polystyrene foam along Lake McDonald's north shore. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
A bead of polystyrene foam sits in a pile of beach debris on Lake McDonald. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
Big Sky Watershed Corps member Erica Salo and volunteer Ellen Sears participate in a beach cleanup on the north shore of Lake McDonald. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
Big Sky Corps member Jared Glass lifts up a log to look for more polystyrene foam on a Lake McDonald beach. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
Alex Spyropoulos shows how much polystyrene foam he'd picked up after a couple of hours on Lake McDonald's north shore. (Taylor Inman/Daily Inter Lake)
Walking along Lake McDonald’s northeastern shore in late December, Heidi Haugen spotted small white dots in the water line debris.
On closer inspection, the West Glacier resident saw that the dots were bits of polystyrene foam, better known by the brand name Styrofoam. Haugen began gathering the trash up, an effort so engrossing she soon realized she wouldn’t reach her intended destination that day.
“In the moment I just thought ‘Oh no, no, this is not good, where did it all come from and no way am I able to get it all myself,’” Haugen recalled.
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