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November 1st, only two volunteers came out to enjoy the cold autumn rain at Bull Run.
October 25th , We put in another 60 plants at our Riparian planting project on the banks of Bull Run. The objective of this effort is to establish a stand of River Oats on an eroded section of stream bank on Bull Run.
October 3rd, 17 volunteers removed more that 1200 pounds of trash from the Shoreline of Mason Neck State Park during the Virginia Waterways Cleanup. More to follow.
September 19th , While our Chapter is frequently at work in our adopted section of Bull Run,we can't always take credit for all the good work that is done there. A perfect example of this is Tom Marotta's Eagle Scout Project in which he recruited and employed 37 volunteers to remove more than 2 tons of trash from the watershed. Thanks go out to Chapter members Ned Foster who suggested the project and to Vinnie Caporale who helped out.
An unusual item found during a cleanup
For directions or more details on the following events please call Colin Riley at 703-200-3994 or send an email to fairfaxwatershed at yahoo.com.
The Chapter has adopted the section of Bull Run, one mile upstream and one mile downstream of the Route 28 Access Point. A major tributary of the Occoquan Reservoir, Bull Run is subject to a substantial amount of recreational use. In 2008, the Chapter removed more than a ton of trash from the stream including 43 tires.
The next scheduled Adopt A Stream Clean up of Bull Run will be at a date and time yet to be determined.
In May of 2009, the Chapter adopted a 0.71 mile section of the Cub Run extending from the Compton Road crossing of Cub Run upstream to the confluence of Rocky Run.
The next scheduled Adopt A Stream Clean up of Cub Run will be on Saturday January 2, 2010 from 9:30 am to 12:00 noon.
Located on Belmont Bay near the confluence of the Occoquan and Potomac Rivers, Mason Neck State Park is home to a diverse array of wildlife including the American Bald Eagle. Unfortunately trash from area roads in the Occoquan watershed is constantly being washed ashore.
The Arlington Fairfax Chapter conducts about four shoreline cleanups a year in order to help maintain the quality of the habitat as well as the recreational value of the park.
Our next scheduled event at Mason Neck State Park will be on a date and time yet to be determined. Perhaps sometime in February 2010.
Over the past few decades, the water quality of many rivers and bays has been improved by the elimination or control of point source discharges of sewage and industrial effluents. Unfortunately these gains have been offset at least in part by the increase in housing densities in many watershed areas and the resulting increase in the effects of so called non point source pollution.
Of particular concern in the Chesapeake Bay is nutrient pollution caused by increased flows of nitrates and phosphates contained in freshwater flowing into the Bay and its impact on Fisheries.
Just about every piece of trash that turns up in waterway does so because of the deliberate action of an individual who discards the item for the sake of convenience or to save the cost of disposal. Plastics are the litter that we most often encounter and although modern polymers are chemically inert, they are not necessarily harmless to the environment. All too often wildlife mistake floating plastic fragments for food.
Every watershed cleanup of trash creates an opportunity to find illegally dumped bottles, cans and drums that contain toxic or environmentally harmful substances hopefully before they leak or break open. Unfortunately such finds are an all too frequent occurence. Some examples of this are listed on this page .
Links to Area Watershed Groups
Main Website of the Arlington Fairfax Chapter, Inc., Izaak Walton League of America
Arlington Fairfax Chapter, Inc. P.O. Box 366 Centreville, VA 20122-0366
1. NVRPA - Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority