Earth Day 2010 along the NW Branch
Kemp Mill Site
From before our official start time of 9am, volunteers began assembling: 19 who could actually work and one who couldn't, since he was just a few months old. Depending on whether they wanted to focus on trash or garlic mustard, volunteers used black bags or orange bags. Several students spent the morning stuffing bags and earning community service credits. The reward for adults was lots of exercise bending and stooping. We hope participants will proudly wear the Anacostia Watershed Society Earth Day T-shirts they earned and join us next time!
John Fay attacks the garlic mustard with a vengeance and a grimace.
Keith Giddinge is caught in the working pose so well known by invasives and trash removal volunteers--stooped over. Let's hope all the aching backs have recovered.
Bekka Fowler came down from Gaithersburg to help.
Student Ezana Dawit packed away the garlic mustard and
was heard asking whether he could pull some more on Sunday.
was heard asking whether he could pull some more on Sunday.
Margie Richards, a Weed Warrior volunteer supervisor and native plant gardener from the Winding Orchard neighborhood, isn't afraid to get into the bushes in her efforts to root out the garlic mustard.
Victoria Ray-Henderson and her son Cliff tackle the really heavy stuff: a wood beam with lights mounted on it, burned at one end and heaved into the woods along Old Randolph Road.
A dedicated volunteer who is collecting trash (black bag) and recyclables (orange bag) separately.
He took the recyclables home to put with his residential recycling.
He took the recyclables home to put with his residential recycling.
Mike and Dianna Pell, new to this area, filled their bags and asked to help out more with the Neighbors of the Northwest Branch. Their son mostly slept.
Shirley Wilson, down from Olney, put in a hard morning's work.
Bags from other workers make orange splotches in the woods.
Bags from other workers make orange splotches in the woods.
Barbara Miller, a local resident, pulls garlic mustard by the Northwest Branch Trail.
Our commemorative photo, taken by Shirley Wilson, with 317 pounds of garlic mustard (weighed on the scale, bag by bag) and 18 bags of trash and assorted loose junk. Unfortunately, some didn't make the picture. Left to right: Yuri Nakai, Anne Ambler, Bekka Fowler, Keith Giddinge, Katecia Mclean, Courtney Campbell, Frederic Koehler, Ezana Dawit, and John Fay.
Postscript: The assorted junk. Now why toss such lovely pails into the woods when they could be reused or recycled? In fact, one volunteer took home a few of them, and this is what was left.
