Carroll Gardener Taylor Mali in action on Court Street, removing snagged plastic bags.
(images via You Tube)
Carroll Gardener and dad Taylor Mali has been on a mission of late. He has been going around the neighborhood snagging plastic bags out of trees with his homemade telescoping "Snatchelator".
How amazing is that? Those ensnarled plastic bags sometimes hang from tree limbs for months if not years, creating eyesores all over our lovely neighborhood and City. It is wonderful that Taylor has taken the initiative to remove them from our street trees.
Taylor's wife Rachel contacted PMFA to tell us about her husband's great community service. She writes:
"My husband Taylor and I live on Union Street and he knows that I have a deep, almost obsessive hatred of plastic getting caught in the neighborhood's beautiful trees. I'm constantly picking up plastic trash when I see it blowing around because I'm afraid it will end up snagged on branches.
So as my Hanukkah present, Taylor went to Lowe's and bought a telescoping grappling hook thingy, which he modified into something he calls the "snatchelator", which he uses to snatch plastic out of tree branches. I posted about it on a couple local Facebook BoCoCa pages and people started sending us reports of trees that needed help, and now we take the kids and occasionally make the rounds, removing the bags we can reach (the snatchelator has a reach of about 28 feet, so we've been defeated by bags that are more than 3 stories high or things like balloons, that are hanging on by a string).
It's such a great service to the neighborhood and probably the coolest present I've ever gotten, even if it's not exactly romantic!
Here is a video Taylor made of him snagging bags this morning from the Bradford pear outside the Mormon meeting center on Court St. Enjoy!"
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12 comments:
WOW, great Job Taylor Mali. Thanks.
There was a funny story in the New Yorker a few years back about removing plastic bags from trees. I think it was by Jonathan frsnzin. I think of that when I see tree garbage
Good hearted AND witty. Nice combo. Thank you for doing a positive thing that benefits everyone!
Witty and good hearted, great combo! We thank you!
Thanks Taylor. There had been a bag outside my window in a tree for years. It has finally blown away. Anyway, thanks but don't quit your day job.
Inspiring to all of us!
-picking up more of those bags and empty containers blowing around on the street. Maybe if we all pitch in we can keep the bags from getting there in the first place free up Jonathan to use his new tool to go apple picking instead.
I'll be sure to thank Taylor if I see him!
Fabulous! And yes, one of a few good bag snaggers: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/01/12/bags-in-trees-a-retrospective
Plastic bags in trees for months? That would be too easy. How about years? How about 20 years? How about way higher than a snatchelator would reach? But its great to hear that people are bothered and fixing the problem. Hopefully the governor will not back down on his bid to ban the damn bags.
This is the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. I'm curious whether Taylor is responsible for the disappearance of the popped balloon that had been snagged on the tree across the street from my front window for about a year and suddenly vanished within the last couple of weeks. Clinton Street between Union and President, right near the fire hydrant. If so, thanks!
i know exactly that balloon of which you speak, anonymous 3:54 pm. i’ve photographed it many a time and then one day not too long ago, it was gone. i thought perhaps that the wind had at last absconded with it, but now i suspect taylor is the one responsible for its disappearance. i had grown quite fond of it. it had acquired a name: jean gabin, after the french actor and patron saint of the down and out. fare thee well, jean gabin. you had a good run.
This is a great service, not only to local trees, but to wildlife and the environment as a whole. As a birder I know that plastic bags (and helium balloons) can be very harmful to wildlife. Thank you, Taylor!
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