The Perfect Spring Day for Picking Trash

Every year, the CRC Watersheds group in conjunction with the Friends of Chester Creek host a stream cleanup. This year, over 1100 participants helped remove waste from Chester Creek - A source of over 20,000 gallons of drinking water per day to residents downstream.

Description of the day courtesy of Kelly Mashu:

Those first sunny warm days of Spring brighten our hearts. A balmy breeze cooed through the trees and along the stream, where we joyfully jaunted out to pick trash.

Cheerful daffodils welcomed wonderfully creepy skunk cabbage sprouts along the stream banking. From the mud we pulled broken glass, plastic water bottles, tires, whole Styrofoam coolers, and scooped a thousand tiny Styrofoam bubbles shed from the cooler’s body.

We forget about water until we are thirsty. We forget that the water we drink and wash with is the water from the sky that falls to the soil and runs down the streams between our yards and our roads. “I wish I could pick up the oil.” A silver-haired woman says to me as we observe that all-too familiar rainbow spill floating on the surface of the stream. “Me too.” I reply. We do what we can. We appreciate the sunshine keeping us warm while we work and wander through this lovely tiny patch of woods.