|
Friends of Accotink Creek
|
|
 Formula One pit crew or the Accotink Tire Roll Relay? |
Our October 24, 2015, Cleanup:
A gray day, but dry and mild temperatures in the 60's gave us favorable cleanup conditions today, our last day of the fall cleanup season. Our one site of the day, Fullerton Road, got an prolonged cleanup today, as we extended the morning cleanup into the afternoon to accommodate the volunteers who had signed up to work on controlling Chinese Wisteria. Our Wisteria Workday fell apart due to delayed permissions. A combined crew of 28 volunteers worked through the day. Illegal dumpers had struck here yet again, as we found 42 clean, recently dumped tires scattered down the slope from the Costco parking lot. Relays of volunteers labored to haul them up. Many thanks to the Costco Tire Shop for taking all of the tires off our hands for proper disposal. "There is no Second Nature. Help save the only one we've got." - The Nature Conservancy |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Our October 17, 2015, cleanup: Autumn arrived today, with morning temperatures in the 40's and highs only in the low 50's. It was still not chilly enough to discourage our volunteers, who put on their jackets and turned out to clean our watershed. At Lake Accotink Park, the volunteers of Virginia Eagle Distributing, plus a few other Friends, made a band of a dozen cleanup volunteers. Thank you Virginia Eagle and everyone! The group focused their efforts on the Flag Run tributary which enters Lake Accotink at the marina. Inexplicably, we found not one, but two bicycle frames without wheels in Flag Run. A bryozoan on the beach at the marina added some biological interest. Returning volunteers from our September 26th cleanup reported the skateboard they had found was now cleaned and returned to active service at the cost of $1.50 for new bearings. A most unusual find today was an apparent spiritual offering - avocados, cigar, corn, carnations, and coins left in an arrangement in the woods. We left the food for the raccoons, accepted the coins as a donation to FACC, and disposed of the wrapping material. "For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish piecemeal." - Thomas Jefferson
|
 Volunteers gather lakeside before heading out. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Old Glory abandoned in Accotink Creek. Litterbugs - No respect for nature, neighbors, or country = No respect for self. |
Our October 10, 2015, Cleanups:
The overnight rain blew away - the creek did not rise appreciably - and we enjoyed a fine day of mild temperatures under blue skies dotted with wispy clouds. Soccer ball, softball, basketball, lacrosse ball, tennis ball - the list of the athletic equipment found by just one family at our first site, Fairfax Boulevard. The crew from the nearby Harley Davidson shop was out patrolling the street for their Adopt-A-Spot cleanups, collecting litter before it reaches the creek - Thanks, Harley Davidson! Our thirteen volunteers' most unusual find was a camping tent, perhaps once as big as 12x12', now reduced to a twisted soggy mess wrapped around fallen trees. The Accotink Vice Squad went into action again, following on our September 26th encounter, as we found and disposed of a bag of mixed pills and a suspicious herbal substance. Twelve volunteers turned out at our second site of the day, Chain Bridge Road, the furthest upstream of all our cleanup sites. We were pleased to see that the landscaping around the newly-renovated bridge included uncommon native plant choices, such as Indian grass, Little bluestem grass, and Staghorn sumac. Police drama surrounded our most unusual find here, a new suitcase filled with clothing. Speculating it may have been the result of a theft, we called the Fairfax City Police, who stopped by and took it in. The thought occurred too late that the police might have been more interested in the bag of pills we found earlier. At our final site, Old Lee Highway, our 18 volunteers included contingents of Mclean High School Oceanography students as well as the Virgin America Live Green Team. Thank you Mclean Oceanographers and Virgin America! There did not seem to be quite so many golf balls as usual here next to the Army-Navy country Club, but we did collect nearly 200 for donation to the Fairfax High School golf team. Two colorful gentlemen who seemed to be spending a lot of their days sitting on a bench in the park advised in passing that one of our cleanup tools was what they knew as a "tater rake", used for harvesting potatoes. Our most unique find here was a Disney princess bicycle. "Last year, the US used enough plastic water bottles to stretch around the world over 190 times." - Brita.com How many of them ended up in Accotink Creek? |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Our October 3, 2015 stream cleanup: Yesterday's nor'easter dropped its last drops. Hurricane Joaquin took a right turn out to sea. Our volunteers faced nothing more than a bit of mild-mannered drizzle throughout the day instead of the heavy rains that had been forecast earlier in the week. After two days of rain, the creek began the day at bankfull level but declining, requiring a bit of extra caution, but not dangerous. At our first cleanup site, King Arthur Road, our seven volunteers were a contingent of Canterbury Woods Elementary School students and parents. Mysterious and inexplicable finds here included a plumbing plunger and a smiling-faced toddler activity center. At our second site of the day, Little River Turnpike, we had a turnout of six volunteers. A cleanup of the parking lot area revealed a frequent and careless visitor with a liking for pineapple flavored cigarillos. Our only unusual find here was a 10' length of 4" pvc pipe. At our last site, Braddock Road, 21 volunteers joined in, including a group of McLean High School Oceanography students. A few daredevil volunteers ventured out onto a slippery logjam to remove the trash that had collected on it. Several volunteers cleaned up the small tributary here, which is scheduled to begin undergoing a stream restoration project next week. Unusual finds included a suitcase, a truck mud flap, and two Cross County Trail signposts. We found not a single tire today. A day without tires is like a day without...well, it's good not to find any, but just a bit disappointing, too.
"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 |
 Happy volunteers discover unusual "happy" trash matches their mood! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Mclean High School Oceanography class volunteers working along Accotink Creek |
Our September 26, 2015 stream cleanups:
Low, gray skies prevailed all day long, but temperatures were mild and rain stayed away until later in the day. At our first site of the day, Franconia-Springfield Parkway, six volunteers retrieved a novel mix of items, including a kiddie wading pool, a one-gallon bottle of motor oil, a salvageable skateboard, and a construction zone warning lantern. Although we were not asking volunteers to search for mussels this time, one alert family spotted three mussel shells among the many Asiatic clam shells found here. When they encountered two youths enjoying herbal refreshments of questionable legality, our quick-thinking volunteers pressed them into service to a greater cause. They did a good job collecting a full bag of trash. At our second and last site of the day, Telegraph Road, ever-mischievous Google misdirected a carload of five McLean High School Oceanography class volunteers, but they got straightened out and arrived just in time to join the other three cleanup volunteers. Sadly, although there was a tremendous amount of trash, deep water made access too difficult to get to most of it. Nothing unusual to speak of was found here, just the usual mix dominated by beverage containers and plastic bags.
"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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Our September 19 & 20, 2015, cleanups:
Warm and sunny days favored our cleanups both Saturday and Sunday. At Braddock Road on Sunday, 20 volunteers from Temple Adat Reyim scoured the creek in Wakefield Park. Following a well-planned route they had charted, the volunteers cleaned up bottles, bags, and assorted rubbish. Thank you, Adat Reyim! On Saturday at Lake Accotink Park Friends of Accotink Creek, Friends of Lake Accotink Park, and the Northern Virginia Community College Green Club walked upstream on the Flag Run tributary to the source of much trash, the outfalls from I-495 and the industrial areas along Port Royal Road. Thank you, Green Club! 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! 
Contact us, E-mail.
|
 NVCC Green Club volunteers with trash collected along the Flag Run tributary. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 I found three tires, but all I could pull out was this lousy bottle! Young volunteer is disappointed by tires too tightly stuck to extract (and also disappointed by the thoughtlessness of litterbugs). |
Our September 5, 2015 stream cleanups:
Warm and sunny weather was in store all day long, great for cleanups, but also ominous, as some of the beleaguered tributaries of Accotink Creek were drying up after weeks of hot weather with only trace precipitation. At our first site, Pickett Road, twenty-four volunteers got their brains wet. Three intrepid young foreign students,less than a month after their arrival in our country, made their way to the site by bus. Our most unusual find here was a four-foot fluoresent light tube that somehow survived its journey along Accotink Creek. At our second site, Barkley Road, seven volunteers trudged along the banks of the creek, cleaning out pockets of trash found wherever we looked. Our most unusual find was a rather mudane wooden chair leg. At our last site of the day, Woodburn Road, ten volunteers contributed to get the trash out. Two volunteers cleaned out the hundreds of beverage bottles at the perennial trash accumulation at the bridge, but were thwarted by the thousands of crumbling bits of styrofoam, too small and too numerous to ever completely remove. Indefinitely boyant, these foam pieces are destined to float down to the sea, be consumed by small creatures, and make their way up the food chain, perhaps to our dinner tables.
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, 2016 and the International Coastal Cleanup in September & October, 2016! Volunteer site leaders and coordinators are needed! Follow the Friends of Accotink Creek motto and "Find just one other person who cares". Contact us, E-mail.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
GET YOUR BRAIN WET! Join Friends of Accotink Creek in next year's International Coastal Cleanup in September, 2016 and the Potomac Watershed Cleanup in April,2016!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
