Authored By seanphippster

A local conservation group is hoping you’ll help capture two Pidgeys with one Poké Ball … so to speak.

Southeast Tennessee Resource Conservation and Development Council organizers encourage anyone who is playing Pokémon Go to help clean up the streets, local trails and green spaces at the same time.

To add some incentive, organizers have created a contest to help get efforts started. Aspiring Pokémon trainers are asked to follow @SETNRCD on Instagram or Facebook and volunteer to pick up trash while they walk around playing the game. Afterward, post a selfie to their wall with the hashtag #trailraiser to be entered to win prizes.

Simone Madsen, SETNRCD’s executive director, created the Trail Raiser program to encourage others to practice good stewardship toward public lands by actively volunteering to clean them while they use them.

The Pokémon Go experience also seeks to get people outside in order to capture small, mythical creatures in an augmented reality cityscape. In just one weekend, Pokémon Go has already garnered more users than Tinder, the popular dating app, and is approaching the number of Twitter users.

Click here for an overview of how to play the game.

Madsen, a Pokémon Go player herself, noticed “tons of younger folks” at White Oak Park in Red Bank playing the game near the Duck Pond. With “gyms,” virtual training facilities and battlegrounds for Pokémon, throughout the city, the game presents a unique opportunity for stewardship.

The combination of the two just made sense.

“Pokémon Go was sort of an afterthought when I noticed how many people were using green spaces here in Chattanooga after it launched,” Madsen said. “The benefits are kind of twofold-you’re already there getting exercise and you already want to be there, so why not take care of the public green spaces you love?”

The game could provide an opportunity for land stewardship every day, instead of just a few focused cleanup days each year.

“Most of these places are maintained by volunteers anyway, and it’s hard to find a time to get a large group of people to agree to show up and do a big job . at best a handful of times a year,” she said. “If everyone did a little bit as often as they went, the need for these organizations to get big groups of volunteers together would change over time to, hopefully, other projects besides litter pickup.”

Originally, Madsen created the Trail Raiser program after she and some friends went swimming at a local blue hole. She noticed piles of trash that had been left by careless visitors to the site.

“We all said it was a shame, and started to walk off and leave after we were done,” she said. “But instead, we grabbed a few bags scattered at the side of the trail and started picking up trash.”

Madsen hopes the program will grow along with the number Pokémon Go users.

The Tennessee Association of Resource Conservation and Development Councils is composed of 12 councils in each region.