Writing Contest Winners 2021-2022

Honorable Mention, Grades 3-5

Olivia Pedersen
Grade 5, Balch Elementary School, Norwood
Mrs. Kelly, Teacher

The Importance of a Clean Boston Harbor

Having a clean Boston Harbor is very important. If we don’t keep the Boston Harbor clean, many things will happen and many things will be affected. Here are some of them.

But first, I want you to picture Boston Harbor with dirty water. Trash and litter all over the ground. Polluted air. No one is there to clean, so no one is having any fun anymore. No one enjoys their time at the beach. No one is having fun fishing. No one is using boats or cannons. No one enjoys the ferry anymore. No one. This is what happens when we don’t keep Boston Harbor clean. So here are the reasons why we need to keep Boston Harbor clean.

One very important thing that will be affected is fish. Fish need clean water. It is the type of habitat and conditions they are used to. If the water gets dirty, fish won’t be able to breathe. If there is trash in the water, it will get caught in their mouths and they might follow it. These things might and will cause fish to die. We want to keep the fish alive because a lot of people go fishing. There won’t be any fishing in the Boston Harbor if there aren’t any fish.

Also many people love to go to the Boston Harbor. One thing people love doing is boating. I don’t think that anyone wants to go in a boat in dirty water. People love to go boating in Boston Harbor, but they won’t love it as much if the water is dirty. Something else people do is swimming. Going swimming in dirty water is gross and not healthy. People will stop swimming.

Another thing that will be affected is business. All of these things will make people not want to go to Boston Harbor. So business will go down. You have to pay money to do some things in the Boston Harbor. So, if not as many people are going, then they will make less money. This would be a big problem because they might not be able to afford everything in the Boston Harbor.

It is not just the water that we need to keep clean, it is also the ground. We need to stop people from littering. People love to go to the beach, but not when trash is everywhere. No one wants to take a nice, long walk on the beach just to find glass, candy wrappers, soda cans or even plastic water bottles in the sand.

Another thing I want to talk about are the playgrounds. Lots of people bring their kids to Boston Harbor – I know my parents did, and if there is one thing kids love, its playgrounds. Imagine: Watching a five year old kid spotting a swing set, running to it, only to trip over a soda can and scrape their knee. The kid starts crying. No one wants to see a little kid cry.

Now picture: you are at your hotel on the balcony, wanting to get a nice breath of fresh air. But, when you breathe in, you start coughing because of the polluted air. When the air and water is polluted, it is a bad environment for everyone and everything.

In conclusion, Boston Harbor is a great place that we need to keep clean to protect everything and everyone going to Boston Harbor. These problems can be solved by making signs to stop littering (on the ground and in the water.) I know that there is currently some sort of pollution in both the air and the water in Boston Harbor. Instead of driving, you can ride a bike, walk or use public transportation. For instance, a lot of people at my school (including me) carpool, ride their bike, ride the bus or walk to school. As for polluted water, we can stop putting bad things in sewers. That would help a lot, too. I hope that these solutions will be done and help the Boston Harbor, even if it is just a little bit.

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