Cleaning up waterways isn't just great for your business or home's curb appeal, it's great for the environment as well. A waterway that's clogged with trash can suffer from a variety of problems, affecting the water and soil quality as well as the wildlife and plants that live in and around it.

Here are some of the ways that cleaning up your waterway can assist the wildlife in the area.

1. Remove trash

Many types of trash can leach toxins into the water. For example, plastics can release chemicals into their surroundings once they get into waterways. So even if the plastic doesn't get eaten by wildlife, it could be contaminating your waterway (and the surrounding area if it washes up on the banks) with chemicals such as PCBs.

Plastic in the wild can also break down into microplastics that can contaminate the environment as well. For example, some plastics are chlorinated, meaning they can release chlorine-based toxins once they start to break down. 

2. Keep wildlife from eating plastic

The more trash and junk is in your waterway, the more plastic will likely end up inside wildlife. Since wildlife aren't adapted to distinguish between actual food and a piece of plastic with food still stuck to it, this could happen more often than you'd think.

And once plastic is inside the stomach of a bird or fish, they may suffer from malnourishment and starvation since their stomach has less room for food. Cleaning up your waterways can reduce this problem, allowing wildlife to stay healthier and avoid excessive plastic consumption.

3. Let light and oxygen into water

Too much trash floating on a waterway can significantly impact the local habitat by reducing the light levels in the water. A water surface that's covered in trash may even make for a less oxygenated body of water since less of the water is open to the air.

This can affect which fish and other wildlife can actually live there, meaning the local ecosystem could be significantly damaged by the presence of trash. Cleaning the area up could allow the native species to repopulate in those areas.

As you can see, the trash that collects in your waterway can have many different negative impacts by looking at it from the perspective of your local wildlife. Water quality, soil quality, aesthetics, and many other factors can also come into play here.

So cleaning up the area, including the waterway itself, can be in the best interests of everyone concerned, from humans to animals. Get in touch with a local waterway cleanup services provider to learn more.