I went looking for trash along Rock Creek on Friday afternoon.
My walk with dog and daughter began at the U.S. Park Police ranger station on Beach Drive at Broad Branch. We took the path by the bridge over the creek south toward Pierce Mill.
We embarked on our hunt to check out the stream banks in preparation for Saturday’s EXTREME Cleanup, organized by Friends of Rock Creek’s Environment. The group focuses on the creek’s health and water quality, as opposed to the entire park.
Every April, FORCE organizes a cleanup, but this one’s “extreme” because the organization expects more than 500 people to come to 50 sites along the creek.
“We’re basically covering the entire watershed,” FORCE chief Beth Mullin told me. “We’re reaching out to every neighborhood, from Rockville to Georgetown. We’re hoping neighbors will adopt their part of the creek. Our motto is: You don’t have to worry about the whole creek; just take care of one spot.”
At the mouth of the path, we walked to the edge of a high bank overlooking the pool beneath the bridge. No trash in the water or on the banks, but we did see a three-foot black rat snake that had taken up residence on the trunk of a fallen tree. Arrayed like a black highway up the trunk, it was catching a few spring rays.
A few hundred yards down, we arrived at a bend in the creek where I was used to seeing a treasure trove of trash. A small tributary empties into the creek through a plastic pipe. There were times when pieces of Styrofoam were piled a foot deep, soccer balls floated in the eddies and plastic bottles were so abundant the bank looked like a solid-waste dump.
On Friday the bend and the bank were clean and clear. In fact, we found the stretch of creek down to Pierce Mill to be relatively free of trash. Back at the bridge, we encountered a U.S. Geological Survey biologist who was testing the creek’s water quality. Why did the creek seem to be so clean? “It hasn’t rained much,” he said. “Maybe the trash hasn’t flushed down the creek this way.”
Mullin offered another explanation. Our short walk is relatively far down the creek’s run to the Potomac River; the trash is trapped by fallen trees upstream. “The creek still needs work,” she tells me. “Storm water is eroding the banks and exposing tree roots. On Pinehurst Branch, trees have fallen like match sticks, every 10 or 15 feet across the creek.”
And the branches act as trash skimmers, trapping the trash until a storm forces it downstream, at which point my little stretch will clog with crap. Unless we all get out and spend a few hours for the EXTREME Rock Creek cleanup on Saturday, April 4. For information check out the FORCE Web site: friendsofrockcreek.org.
And look for black snakes. They are harmless. Ours was still soaking up the sun when we finished our stroll.
