A Saturday of Cleanup, Tree Planting, and Restoration in Brookside Park

By: Jeremy Kranowitz

Brookside Park is one of those places that tells an incredible story about our city.

It shows what a neighborhood values. It reflects how people gather, how they move through shared space, and whether a public place feels cared for.

And on a recent Saturday morning, it showed something else: what it looks like when people choose to show up.

105 volunteers came together to clean up 1,030 pounds of litter in and around the park, plant nearly one hundred trees, and support riparian restoration work along Pogue’s Run. On paper, those might sound like three separate tasks. In reality, they are all part of the same commitment: taking responsibility for a place that matters and leaving it stronger than we found it.

Brookside is not just a backdrop for recreation. It is a neighborhood asset, a gathering place, and an ecological corridor with real value for the surrounding community. The wooded landscape, the waterway, and the public space itself all shape how the park is experienced and how it functions over time. When litter is removed, when native trees are planted, and when habitat along the riparian corridor is restored, the impact is both immediate and long-term.

There is the visible difference people notice right away: cleaner pathways, healthier landscapes, a park that feels more welcoming. But there is also the quieter benefit of restoration work that helps stabilize habitat, improve the health of the corridor, and support the long-term resilience of the space.

For Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, this kind of work is never just about appearances. It is about stewardship. It is about helping neighbors experience the kind of public spaces that invite pride, care, and connection. It is about making sure the places that hold community life also receive community investment.

That is especially true at Brookside, where restoration work builds on years of effort in and around Pogue’s Run. This project is one more chapter in a larger story, one that says environmental work is not abstract and civic pride is not for show. Both become real when people show up with gloves on, shovels in hand, and a willingness to do the work together.

And that may be the most important part of all.

Community projects like this remind us that transformation rarely happens through one grand gesture. More often, it happens through repetition: a cleanup here, a planting there, a neighborhood that decides its public spaces are worth caring for again and again. Over time, that steady work changes how a place looks, how it feels, and what it makes possible.

So yes, this hard work on a March Saturday was about cleaning things up. It was about tree planting. It was about riparian restoration. But more than that, it was about what those things represent when they happen together: a city that believes public places are worth loving, and a community willing to prove it.

If you want to be part of that kind of change, we have many, many ways for you to join us. Check out our Projects Calendar today!

Categories: Busy Roads and Waterways, Clean Neighborhoods, Community Forestry, Engaged Citizens, Great Indy Cleanup, Habitat Restoration, KIB Ambassadors, News & Features, Tree Tenders, Trees and Native Habitats