In the northwest of Santa Cruz, the town of Perito Moreno was the setting for a community cleanup day in the Urban Reserve, where more than fifty people gathered to collect waste in the wetland that supplies water to the city.
The initiative, born from the group Exploradores de Parque Patagonia, quickly turned into a collective action involving neighbors, students, teachers, organizations, and the municipality.
Inspired by the Call to Earth Day
The activity was carried out as part of the Call to Earth Day, an international initiative that every November 6th invites people to take concrete actions for the environment.
“This year the theme was associated with cleaning our environment, so we thought it was a nice opportunity to bring the invitation to this territory. Although it started with us, it quickly became a community effort,” explained Rocío Navarro, Communities Coordinator at Parque Patagonia.
Organizations such as Vecinos por la Laguna, the Club Andino Pari Aike, the municipality, and several educational institutions, including EPP N.º 12, participated.
Caring for water, caring for history
The group chose to work in the area known as Roca Negra, a space much loved by the community and used for everyday activities like drinking mate, walking, or watching the sunset.
The wetland, besides being a living and delicate system that supplies water to the entire town, is loaded with historical significance. Perito Moreno was previously called Pari Aike, which means “place of reeds,” reflecting the deep relationship between the town’s identity and its landscape.
The invisible trash that becomes landscape
During the day, bags, bottles, cans, broken glass, and cardboard were collected. However, the most concerning was the old trash mixed with the soil, which often becomes normalized and ceases to be perceived as a problem.
In just two hours, the Environment department’s truck was half full. But beyond the amount collected, the most valuable aspect was the visible and tangible collective action: fifty people moving, carrying bags, and transforming the place in real-time.
Local actions with local impact
For Rocío Navarro, who has worked for eight years in Parque Patagonia and five in the Exploradores de Parque Patagonia project, this day was not an isolated event but part of a way of thinking about the future.
In times dominated by individualism and the pursuit of social media prominence, Rocío highlights the value of small and shared actions:
“With these simple actions, like gathering for two hours a week to clean, we take on another dimension. Because it goes beyond picking up trash; it’s about choosing ourselves as a community. Reaffirming that we can still work for something in common.”
Inspired by Jane Goodall‘s phrase about “local actions with global impact,” Rocío adapts it in her own way: local actions with local impact, because each community gesture strengthens hope and shows that something can still be done.
The challenge: sustaining the work over time
Looking to the future, the goal is to maintain the continuity of these actions. Among the projects are:
- Organizing the reserve’s boundaries.
- Installing signage.
- Continuing to work with schools on environmental education.
The key lies in sustained work and an involved community, committed year after year to the conservation of their environment and history.
The cleanup day in the Urban Reserve of Perito Moreno was much more than picking up trash: it was an act of community reaffirmation, of caring for water and collective memory. In a landscape that sustains the life and identity of the town, these simple actions become powerful gestures that remind us that hope is built among many.
