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Friends of Accotink Creek
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 Volunteers find the way to move a heavy load |
Our October 14, 2023, stream cleanups: We faced a day of more or less constant drizzle with cool temperatures rising only to 60 degrees. The overcast skies ensured there was no glimpse of the partial eclipse for us. Pickett Road was our first site of the day. We had a total of 16 volunteers here, including a group of NVCC environmental science students. Our volunteers collected 30 bags of trash. Our unusual finds here included a potato masker and cooking pot - but these were not as unusual as we might hope, since they likely resulted from the encampments of homeless individuals found along the creek here. Along the trail we encountered two veterans of cleanups in this area who told us tales of using grappling hooks to extract shopping carts from the creek and of the recent attempts of beavers to maintain a dam near the Picket Road bridge. This site is the same location proposed for the Pickett Road Connector Trail, an entirely redundant conversion of forest and floodplain to asphalt. At Vaden Drive, our second site of the day, our 3 volunteers removed 10 bags of trash. Two young volunteers had an exciting encounter with a small snake. Our unusual finds here included a 12" C-clamp, a lawn chair, and a golf umbrella. This was a new site for us, and our first cleanup site on a tributary vs. the main stem of Accotink Creek. Hatmark Branch was flowing at barely a trickle and today's rain was not enough to revive it. Our last site of the day, and of the season, was Barkley Drive. Our 17 volunteers here removed 20 bags of trash and two tires. Our reptile-handling volunteers from our midday site returned and encountered a box turtle. Our most unusual finds were an eclectic collection of a wooden hobby horse, half a kayak paddle, and a nice brass lamp that lit up when plugged in.
"Consider the cost to engineer a water amenity like Accotink Creek compared to the cost of preserving what nature has blessed us with." - Donald Pless Remember to remind your groups of the importance of proper cleanup during and after all outdoor activities. Reduce, Recycle, Reuse! In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. - Aristotle |
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Our October 7, 2023 stream cleanups:
The day began with steady drizzle, but by noon patches of blue were peeking though and by midafternoon there was not a cloud to be seen in the sky. Temperatures held pretty steady in the comfortable mid-sixties. Our first site of the day was Woodburn Road, where our 15 volunteers collected 10 bags of trash and one tire. We were joined by Cub Scout Den 833 and volunteers representing Trout Unlimited. Thank you, Den 833 and Trout Unlimited! As is often the case, the bridge here acted as a trash trap keeping 3 volunteers occupied for an hour cleaning just that one spot. Our most unusual find here was a Tesla hubcap, which a volunteer will offer for sale online, proceeds to Friends of Accotink Creek. At our second site of the day, King Arthur Road, the sun emerged just as we were getting underway. Our 17 volunteers again included a group from Trout Unlimited. Thank you, Trout Unlimited Together they removed 15 bags of trash. A pair of volunteers tried diligently to dig out a half-buried object that might have once been a car fender, but only got half of it. The rest will have to await the archaeologists of the future. Our most unusual finds here were a beach umbrella and an old Princess-style phone. At Little River Turnpike, our last site of the day, 16 volunteers collected 11 bags of trash and 4 tires. One tire had to be chopped free of tree branches with an ax. Parts of the area seemed unusually clean, as if someone had been cleaning before us, possibly Operation Stream Shield, a jobs program for shelter residents. Our most unusual find here was a shopping cart which one volunteer heroically pushed almost a mile along the trail with a frozen wheel and a tire in the basket. Not exactly trash, another unusual find here was a salt water clamshell, likely the remains of someone's dinner.
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 Victorious volunteers at King Arthur Road. |
 High water made our work challenging today. |
Our September 23, 2023 stream cleanups:
The edge of tropical storm Idalia brush by yesterday, causing day long rains that continued today as as drizzle and occasional light showers. Accotink Creek was high, but not dramatically so. Still, it was enough to prevent any work in the creek itself. We were limited to working along the edges and in small tributaries. The weather seemed to scare off most of the volunteers who had signed up to join us. At our first site of the day, Braddock Road, we had only 2 volunteers, who collected 3 bags of trash. The most unusual item found here was an 18" flower pot. At Franconia-Springfield Parkway, we had 4 volunteers, who collected 4 bags of trash and one tire. Our most unusual find was a round drain cover. At our last site of the day, Telegraph Road, the high water left us so little room to work, we gave up. However, we did remove 2 bags of trash collected for us by a homeless individual residing in the woods here.
"If half of American lawns were replaced with native plants we would create the equivalent of a 20 million acre national park - nine times bigger than Yellowstone, or 100 times bigger than Shenandoah National Park." - Dr. Doug Tallamy |
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Our September 16, 2023, cleanups:
The day was sunny, mild, and cloudless, with temperatures starting the mid-60's and rising to about 80 degrees. At our first site, Fairfax Boulevard, we had a crew of 5 volunteers. The volunteers collected 7 bags of trash. Our most unique find here was a toy train car with a root grown through it. This cleanup area is the same location proposed for the George Snyder Trail, another misguided trees-to-asphalt conversion project. Our second site of the day was Chain Bridge Road, where 6 volunteers cleaned up 9 bags of trash. Our most unusual finds here were a firehose and five blankets. A family worked hard at extracting the shopping cart stuck in the streambed, but it still defied all efforts. Blenheim Blvd was our last site of the day. Six volunteers here removed 11 bags of trash. A grandmother with her two grandsons found a bucket and filled it with some of the many golf balls found here adjacent to the Army-Navy Country Club. Our most unusual find was half a rolling office chair. The homeless situation here only seems to grow. Some homeless persons are conscientious about keeping their campsites clean. Others, perhaps at the point of despair, throw trash in the woods and in the stream. This left the creek here in deplorable condition today. Dimitri, only recently reduced to living in the woods, told us of the travails of the homeless and his heroic efforts to clean the rubbish previous residents had left around his campsite. Thank you, Dimitri, and good luck!
How many ways can the message of personal responsibility be expressed? No littering! No Dumping! Pitch in! Put trash in its place! We all benefit by being reminded! 
GET YOUR BRAIN WET! Think about your creek. |
 The shopping cart wins again |
 The volunteers of Olam Tikvah gathered for the Reverse Tashlich |
Our September 10, 2023, cleanup:
The volunteers of Olam Tikvah gathered at King Arthur Road for their Reverse Tashlich , a part of Repair the Sea, the Global Jewish Waterfront Cleanup. The night before, the weather forecast quickly went from 0% chance of rain, to 80%, then 90% by the time we started. Still 17 volunteers turned out and only faced intermittent gentle raindrops. Despite some initial expectations that there would be little trash found, the volunteers collected 11 bags and two tires. The most unusual find was a broken Cross County Trail marker. Thank you, Olam Tikvah!
Despite all the wonderful volunteers who have turned out to help, we are still outnumbered by the litterbugs. Your club, school, business, or other group is welcome to join Friends of Accotink Creek in next year's Potomac Watershed Cleanup in April & May, and the International Coastal Cleanup in September & October! Volunteer site leaders and coordinators are needed! Follow the Friends of Accotink Creek motto and "Find just one other person who cares". |
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The International Coastal Cleanup is the world's largest volunteer data collection effort devoted to the marine environment. The Ocean Conservancy compiles the data received from sites around the world, and prepares a summary report to be used by citizens and policy makers in evaluating our progress in dealing with this serious form of pollution.
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GET YOUR BRAIN WET! Join Friends of Accotink Creek in next year's International Coastal Cleanup in September and the Potomac Watershed Cleanup in April! Read about last year's International Coastal Cleanup on Accotink Creek. 
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