Fifteen volunteers worked for a total of 54 hours collecting more than 20 bags of trash from Upper Four Mile Run on Saturday, May 21, all to give ducks a cleaner place to paddle. 

Park Stewards Amy Crumpton, Eric Sword, Jo Allen, and Noreen Hannigan were joined by Victor Lopez, owner of Quetzal Lawn and Landscape, his son and six of his crew plus a few other volunteers in plucking trash from the mostly shallow creek. They removed items ranging from a pool noodle to a car bumper from the stream that flows into the Potomac River and eventually enters the Chesapeake Bay. Much of the debris was plastic bags along with scrap metal.

 

Although the volunteers, working on one of the hottest days so far this year, gathered everything they could from the 1/2-mile stretch through the Dominion Hills neighborhood, and in East Falls Church and Benjamin Banneker Parks in Arlington, there was insufficient time to clean the stream through Madison Manor Park. Neighbors may want to use Saturday, June 4, which is International Stream Cleanup Day, to clean Four Mile Run through Madison Manor.

Friends of Brandymore Castle has handy trash grabbers, gloves, and buckets to lend for future stream and park cleanups and lots of contractor bags for stashing debris for pickup by Arlington County staff from park trash collection sites. Just contact us at info.fobc@gmail.com to reserve the supplies.

Here are photos from the cleanup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author: Jo Allen
Published on: May 23, 2022, 7:29 AM