Annual Patuxent Cleanup
Riverkeepers work on watershed problems, not just symptoms. But dumped trash, while a symptom, is one of the more unsightly and obvious signs of the decay of our waterways, especially in heavily used public access areas. Therefore the Patuxent Riverkeeper coordinates the only river-wide annual cleanup event each April. The Riverkeeper is joined by scores of other partners to provide supplies, site supervision, and promotional and other resources, in an effort to make each year's cleanup bigger than the last. Our motto is: To clean up a river, somebody has to get dirty!
We also tally the yield of each cleanup in order to get a statistical record of annual growth of volunteerism and increases in the amount/tonnage of trash collected. Additionally, we help local groups recruit volunteers and advertise their own cleanups on our web site. The effort to remove more tonnage and engage more volunteers each year keeps the cleanup growing annually in scope and effectiveness.
This year (2011) many sites are holding their cleanups on April 2nd. You can downloaded a list of sponsored sites: Annual Patuxent River Cleanup Sites (as of 3/30/2011)