Fairfax, VA (USA)

Mollie and I joined a cleanup crew at Accotink Stream Valley Park (near Annandale, off King Arthur Drive near Beltway and Little River Turnpike) early this morning so Mollie could get some service hours for school. We arrived at 0845 (the first volunteers) and helped with trash collection for over two hours. There were actually only four volunteers total - not nearly enough - so we were fighting an unwinnable battle against the mass of trash that had flowed into the creek from surrounding neighborhoods since the Spring clean-up. So sad to see - wish people would try a little harder to properly dispose of their refuse... Mollie and I filled five bags of trash in two hours - almost 80% was plastic bags and bottles and some areas were even packed with four-five inches of garbage. By the end of the day, we'd found a full liter bottle of Colt 45, an empty fire extinguisher, a huge piece of siding, three car tires and countless balls (baseball, street hockey, tennis, etc.). All assembled at the staging area, it was a depressing indictment of the residents of our town... There are a lot more weekends left to volunteer (through October 13) - we hope more people will get out there to help cleanup the watershed!