After moving to the East Isles area a year and a half ago, Henry LaBounta was struck by the natural beauty of Minnesota. The chain of lakes he lives next to are beautiful places to enjoy. Although, there was one thing that impacted that beauty: the trash on the shore and in the water. Henry, taking his dog on twice daily walks, became more and more aware of the trash in his neighborhood, but for a while didn’t think of doing anything about it—until one day he was putting his kayak in the water, and it looked like someone had dumped full trash bins on the ground. “I just couldn’t take it anymore,” Henry says, and that day he decided to do something about it. Ever since, Henry has been doing the work of picking up the trash left behind in his neighborhood. Henry started in his kayak, picking up the trash floating in the water and storing it in the kayak’s cockpit. Eventually, he was picking up too much trash to fit in the kayak, so he got some chest-high waders, provided by the Park Board, and got to work wading around the lake, picking up trash. Soon enough, he had picked up enough trash that he could enjoy kayaking the lake without paddling through trash. But the next spring, he started to see trash appearing as the snow melted. He recalls thinking, “I have to pick this up.” Henry began to walk around the lakeshore with a 5-gallon bucket, quickly filling up the bucket with the garbage. But over time, he began to notice his work having an effect. “Now, it takes quite a bit longer to fill up the bucket,” he says. These days, Henry’s moved over to Hennepin, picking up trash along the road. “My theory is, picking up stuff along the road will prevent it from ending up in the lake,” he says. He’s also looking for other people who are interested in what he’s doing, and might want to help. If you want to get involved with his project of making Minnesota cleaner, or want to start your own clean up and would like advice, you can contact Henry at cleanlakesmpls@gmail.com . Henry LaBounta goes Upstream by rolling up his sleeves and doing the work of caring for place, and he hopes others will, too.