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Committed citizens, braving heavy rains and rising stream levels, turned out by the thousands to clean local waterways throughout much of the Bay watershed on April 2.
In Maryland, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay coordinated Project Clean Stream, which turned out 776 volunteers who gathered 39,521 pounds of trash from about 50 sites in central Maryland and part of the Eastern Shore. Among the debris was a set of golf clubs, a go cart and poached deer parts.
Another 47 sites postponed their events until later in the month in search of better weather.
“It was a washout, but there were a lot of really gung ho people out there,” said Kate Dowling of the Alliance, who organized the event, which was funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
On the Potomac, meanwhile, only 45 percent of the 204 registered cleanup sites taking part in the 17th Annual Potomac River Cleanup were able to report results because of the weather.
Nonetheless, 70 tons of trash were removed by more than 2,600 volunteers at 108 sites in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia—all in less than three hours, according to the Alice Ferguson Foundation, which coordinated the event. Other sites were expected to complete their cleanups later in the month.
“Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves and pick up some trash,” said U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D–MD, one of the volunteers. Other volunteers included other politicians, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, clubs, military personal, businesses and many more—Jimmy Buffet Fans in the “Parrothead Club” scoured Daingerfield Island in Alexandria, VA.
Among the items volunteers picked up were a Civil War sword; bedroom dresser filled with clothes; Harley-Davidson motorcycle seat; 50 dinara in Bosnian currency; 200-gallon plastic tank; Kelvinator refrigerator/freezer; police cruiser grille; and an airplane tire.
Separate events were also taking place throughout the watershed, as the stream cleanups have become an annual rite of spring in recent years. But organizers say the actual impact of the soggy day, though, reached beyond the streambanks to the stewardship lessons gained by participants.
“It makes such a big impact on the people that come out.” Dowling said. “Volunteers say they are going to start bringing trash bags along when they go to the park. A cleanup is a nice way for people to become familiar with their local streams.”
