How Much of This Trash Is Yours?

The Wildlife Achievement Chapter has been engaged in a decades-long conservation effort in the Upper Patuxent River watershed. In addition to river cleanups, chapter members take out the trash as part of Montgomery County’s Adopt-A-Road program.

In fall 2009, the chapter’s adopted 2-mile stretch of Mullinix Mill Road was recognized as the MontgomeryCounty site where the most trash was collected — a dubious honor! The chapter usually has enough volunteers on-hand to clean up adjoining portions of Long Corner Road, where they recently found an abandoned boat trailer alongside other debris.

“Even though we have been doing this clean- up for more than 20 years and the roads now seem fairly clean, we still end up with a large pile of trash every year,” says chapter conservation committee co-chair Jeff Deschamps.