Cleaning Up the Magothy, One Stream at a Time
Jim Edward is the
deputy director of the Chesapeake Bay Program
Office.
It was a Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m., and already it was in
the mid-70s and humid. After getting lost, I arrived at the Magothy River Day
and Watershed Clean Up, an event organized by the Magothy River Association
(MRA) to celebrate John Smith’s discovery of the Magothy River
on June 12th more than 400 years ago.
Once I arrived -- 15 minutes late -- the 25+ volunteers that
had gathered at Chelsea Beach in Pasadena,
Maryland, were already working
hard and craving the water cooler and ice that I was in charge of bringing. The
enthusiastic, hard-working (and sweaty!) volunteers, who ranged in age from 7
to 70, were helping to clean up Indian River Creek, which was riddled with hundreds of tires and
other debris from more than 25 years of neglect. The creek was
at the bottom of a steep ravine, and rolling huge truck tires up the hill was a
muddy and sweaty challenge for many of us (including me!!!!). But over the next
couple of hours we managed to nearly fill two 20-foot-long dumpsters with old
tires, rims, rusty lawnmowers, water heaters (???) and other “junk.”
Jim (right) and other volunteers clear some strange items of trash from the area, including a water heater and an old lawn mower.
The trash was located at the bottom of a steep ravine, so the voluteers had to push the tires uphill -- exhausting work!
MRA President Paul Sparado was there and working as hard as
anyone. But the real organizers for the
day were Juliet Page and Tom Hampton of the MRA Stormwater Committee, of which
I am a member. Along with other members of the committee, they worked with Anne Arundel
County to identify sites along the Magothy River in need of clean-up and restoration.
These before and after photos show what a difference this small band of people
made that morning and the value of citizens and government working together to
achieve a common goal.
Before: A pile of tires sat at the bottom of a steep ravine near Indian River Creek, which drains to the Magothy River.
After: The creek bed is clear of tires and other trash.
I just recently joined the Chesapeake Bay Program Office as
its deputy director after more 20 years of working for the EPA in Washington, D.C.
Not only has my carbon footprint become smaller, but my professional and personal
worlds have become one. I have done volunteer work for many years with MRA, the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Earth Conservation Corps, and now Bay-related
work is my everyday job, too. But I am only
one of the nearly 17 million people who live in the Bay watershed. It will take
efforts from each and every one of us to restore the Bay we all know and love.
President Obama and his family of five (remember, his
mother-in-law lives with him!) are among the newest residents of the Bay watershed,
and it did not take him long to embrace his new home and recognize the Bay as a
national treasure by issuing an Executive Order. It charges the EPA to lead a renewed
federal effort to restore the Bay by working with its state and local partners
and others throughout the watershed. But it is important to remember that the
government can’t do it all. The MRA cleanup and its volunteers are a prime
example of that. So lets each do our part…one by one….it’s a new day for the
Bay!