Scouts Help Clean Up Watershed

Fifty-one boys and girls from local scouting troops were among the thousands of people who gathered across the D.C. region Saturday for the 24th Annual Alice Ferguson Potomac Watershed Cleanup day, an annual effort to remove litter and debris from waterways in the Potomac Watershed.

Nearly 15,000 volunteers were expected to turn out Saturday across 500 sites along the watershed, from Pennsylvania to West Virginia and the Maryland, Virginia and D.C. area, according to the event organizers.

In Vienna, members of two Boy Scout troops, three Cub Scout packs and two Girl Scout troops tackled the bike patch along the creek and flood plain near Follin Lane, said Scott Truax, Cubmaster of Pack 152. They collected 44 bags worth of trash and recycled material, as well as more than 50 pounds of debris that couldn’t be bagged.

Among the items they collected were an old, broken sod buster plow; a pipe and barbed wire from a construction zone next to the creek; bottles; and "other debris that people have either allowed to flow down the creek or threw off to the side as they walked along," Truax said.

"Removing this debris from our local community will allow for a cleaner Potomac River in the future," Truax said.