Alice Ferguson Potomac River Watershed Clean Up - April 4, 2009

On Saturday, 4/4/2009, 55+ volunteers mustered to clean the section of Little Rocky Run between US 29 and Centreville Farms Road.  Many of the volunteers were individuals or families who read about our clean up and came to help out.  In addition, several businesses and organizations donated their time and energy, including UOSA (organized by Nina Andgren), CDM, Malcom Pirnie, the Kate Hanley Center (Kristen Lenz), Union Mills Community Association (Mike Shipley) and a remarkable spiritual group led by Lasantha Wedande. These intrepid volunteers battled brisk wind, brambles, mud, and water to haul out 98 bags of debris, car and truck parts, 15 tires, and miscellaneous trash weighing 2,388 pounds.  98 bags is the all-time single day tally for trash bags removed.  (Previous record for bags was the 2008 Alice Ferguson cleanup).  Finally, all of this trash was hauled by truck to the Ox Road transfer station, requiring 8 trips.  Special thanks is due to Lasantha Wedande who stayed until the bitter end to help haul everything away.  Lasantha's extra effort was much appreciated since FLRR takes pride in doing turnkey clean ups. Special thanks are also in order for the Korean Church of Vision and Love, who graciously let us take over their parking lot on Saturday morning.

CDM volunteeers pictured above.

Above, CDM employees venture into a nearby stormwater pond, CV-7, one of the worst trash vectors in the Little Rocky Run watershed.  Below are the volunteers organized by Lesantha Wedande who also worked hard to clean CV-7.  At right, most of an old truck's backend is loaded for a rendevous with the scrap metal pile at the Ox Road landfill.

Clean ups like this always take on a life of their own when they begin, and are difficult to choreograph.  Thus we somehow do not have a single picture of the UOSA folks.  These good people scoured out both sides of Little Rocky Run, braving brambles and carefully avoiding nesting geese to do so.  They also brought snacks, drinks, and t-shirts.  Nina Andgren did a marvelous job of organizing the UOSA group and was a huge asset to the entire endeavor. Unfortunately we also do not have any photos of the Union Mills volunteers who cleaned the other side of US 29, including a ditch full of nasty things.