Fall Cleanup, October 2011
Blair Crew Team NWB Cleanup, October 22
Twelve members of the Blair Crew Team and three parent leaders attacked the slopes and ravines along the Northwest Branch just inside the Montgomery County border with Prince Georges County. They overlapped a little the area of last spring's cleanup by members of the Nature Conservancy and scoured the bottom of the ravine from which St. Camillus Church youth pulled so much junk last spring when they worked closer to the top. Concentrating a lot of effort and rowing muscle power, the crew amassed what leader Pete Murtha described as: "24 bags of trash, and probably an equivalent amount of debris including fire extinguishers, electronic waste, bikes, a trampoline?!, enough auto parts to manufacture a car and keep it in spare tires for 400,000 miles as well as 'the kitchen sink' " (really!).A mighty thanks to the Blair Crew Team and the parent leaders for an excellent job! And thanks to Board member John Fay for launching the team with gloves, bags, permissions, and safety advisory.
The deep ravine emptying to the Northwest Branch
begins to give up its multi-year accumulation of junk.
---Photo by Xiaorong
begins to give up its multi-year accumulation of junk.
---Photo by Xiaorong
The crew team shows off some of what they found. Is that the kitchen sink on the right?
But not to worry, all the junk was moved off the trail
and bundled as much as possible for pickup.
---Photo by Pete Murtha, leader
But not to worry, all the junk was moved off the trail
and bundled as much as possible for pickup.
---Photo by Pete Murtha, leader
These young men and women and their parent leaders (not pictured) detrashed
about 600 yards of the stream's edge and immediately adjacent grounds on both sides
of the NWB trail from the Piney Branch bridge upstream, and including the two small
tributaries coming into the Northwest Branch. As leader Pete Murtha reports,
"once we got maybe 100 yards down the trail, our task changed considerably from mainly
removing discarded junk and litter to picking up debris moved downstream by high water."
Because the team rows on the Anacostia River, team members are especially sensitive to debris in, and moved by, the water.
---Photo by Pete Murtha, leader
about 600 yards of the stream's edge and immediately adjacent grounds on both sides
of the NWB trail from the Piney Branch bridge upstream, and including the two small
tributaries coming into the Northwest Branch. As leader Pete Murtha reports,
"once we got maybe 100 yards down the trail, our task changed considerably from mainly
removing discarded junk and litter to picking up debris moved downstream by high water."
Because the team rows on the Anacostia River, team members are especially sensitive to debris in, and moved by, the water.
---Photo by Pete Murtha, leader