KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Bruce Braden brought something to show us to our Raytown "Let's Talk" event.
"This is all the debris from when people release the balloons," he said. "Out in the woods, like Lake Jacomo, Blue Springs Lake, and they don't deteriorate." I asked him how often he finds something like this.
Braden, who told me he will spend hours outdoors, said "Almost every trip."
He wants people to stop doing balloon releases.
"Agreed," said Jacque Blessington from Lakeside Nature Center. I reached out after I talked to Braden to see if there are any impacts on our wildlife.
"While we may not encounter directly like on a daily basis, but environmentally and with wildlife worldwide, it's it's problematic," said Blessington.
While she told me she couldn't recall a specific issue locally with balloon litter, she said balloons are just part of the problem litter poses overall.
"For us, a lot of it would have more to do with like the strings and the ribbons that kind of get left behind," she said. "It seems like almost every nest we find anymore has some level of non-natural materials in it."
She showed us multiple nests with trash woven in, some that could potentailly entangle the birds in them.
"That's like tarp material, there's a zip tie in here," she said showing me one nest.
She also shared with us photos of a Goose they treated who's legs got tangled in fishing line.
Several states have regulations or restrictions against balloon releases. In Missouri, staff for Rep. Jo Doll said via email that she filed legislation after a constituent brought up the concern and that Doll plans to file the bill again during the next session.
"I really think that for the most part, there isn't an awareness or thought in terms of what happens after. It's more about that moment that they're in, but we all know what goes up comes down," said Blessington.
Both Braden and Blessington would love people to consider alternatives.
"I would wish they would do butterfly gardens, bird houses, go around and cut down the Bradford pears," Braden said. "There's a lot of things we could do besides balloon releases."
Representative Doll was one of two Missouri lawmakers recently to bring legislation about balloon releases.
