Harry Jaffe: District’s environment needs some help from its next mayor

On this moist and musty Monday — in an autumn season that has seen almost every leafy tree in D.C. flame out with a burst of crimson or yellow or orange — the Pinehurst Branch of Rock Creek surfaces in a deep, dark pool just inside the D.C. line.

Beth Mullin opens a black trash bag. I reach down to pick up an empty beer bottle and stuff it in the sack. We continue our walk to the confluence of the Pinehurst with another creek.