I’ve never been one for making New Year resolutions so it’s a little surprising to find myself making one here.

It’s also a little surprising what prompted me to be making this resolution.

For well over 20 years now I have been running along the Chippewa River in Eau Claire, Wisc. most every Saturday morning.

During that time I and my running buddies have seen quite a few sights along this scenic waterway.

We’ve seen eagles, cranes, ducks, geese, deer, and turtles.

Tubers, kayakers, boaters, and fishermen.

Countless beautiful sunrises, ice formations, fast water, and sea smoke.

One thing that we had never seen while running along the Chippewa River—at least not until recently– is a couch. But there it has been for the last three or four weeks, sitting in a foot or two of water just upstream from the Clairemont Avenue bridge.

It’s a pretty steep bank from the running trail down to where the couch sits in the water below, so it’s a bit of a mystery as to how the unsightly piece of furniture got there.

Did it get pushed down the bank and then carried into the water?

Was it given such a strong “heave-ho” from above that it cleared the shoreline and landed in the river?

Did it get tossed off one of the bridges a short ways upstream and somehow float downstream to its shallow-water resting place? 

However the couch wound up in the river, it was most likely dumped there by someone who wanted to avoid the cost of having it hauled away to the landfill.

Seeing this kind of illegal dumping reminded me of what the late former City of Eau Claire Public Works Director Brian Amundson told our running club several years ago when he was meeting with us to discuss the fundraising we were doing for the mile markers that now adorn the city’s portion of the Chippewa River Trail. One of our members asked about the possibility of the markers being vandalized.

I don’t remember Brian’s exact words but his reply went something like this:

“We’ve found that the best response to vandalism is to remove it as soon as possible,” he said. “We’ve found that leaving vandalism unaddressed has a way of encouraging more vandalism.”

Brian’s words stuck with me because I find them to be instructional for other areas of life.

Take unhealthy thoughts and behaviors, for example. Just like vandalism, they have a way of encouraging more of the same. So the sooner we root them out the better.

Here’s hoping that in the days ahead we do our best to keep our hearts, minds, and rivers clear of unwanted trash like ratty, water-logged couches. Happy Trails in 2025!