Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another cleanup along the Patapsco River along River Road in Catonsville. Stream watcher Mike Spade pointed out an area along the river that needed some strong, energetic helpers to remove some trash and junk. Thanks to 27 volunteers from BVU's G.I.V.E., PHG members and other friends, we removed 21 bags of trash and other junk weighing approximately 1,000 pounds from this river area! Some unusual trash we removed includes tires, pipes, dishwasher tray, soccer ball, tennis balls, kid balls, 22 golf balls, piles of wood, metal chair, car hood, an assortment of car parts and pieces, wire, sports equipment, water logged diaper, carpet, jacket, underwear, 2 boogie boards, old fishing gear, beer bottles and cans, cigarette containers, water bottles, broken glass, boot with moss, milk crate, inflatable bouncing ball and a lot of broken glass. We also spotted some ducks swimming in the river and a lot of "big juicy worms!" Special thanks to our photographers Rachel Shuster and Justin McMillion, as well as all of our wonderful helpers for a job well done on a hot summer morning

A great day full of re-enactors, train models, telegraphs with morris code, music, games, singers....a great day with hundreds of folks who came out to celebrate the 175th celebration of the Thomas Viaduct Bridge!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway partnered with the SC&H Group and Business Volunteers Unlimited Maryland for a watershed cleanup in the Patapsco River watershed, off of Hammonds Ferry Road in Baltimore County. This is a main area that PHG will focus on in the fall of 2010. Twenty volunteers helped remove an estimated 5,800 pounds of junk and trash from this area that would otherwise ended up further down the Patapsco River in the event of a heavy rainstorm! Over 200 bottles were picked up, 42 tires, 84 bags of trash and a lot of illegally dumped used lumber and what looked like other discarded building materials. Kudos to Baltimore County for curtailing any further dumping by placing large boulders across the access road! Special thanks to our other PHG friends who also showed up to lend the SC&H Group a helping hand! A lot of junk/trash removed from the area and the riverbanks thanks to all these hard working volunteers!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another guided kayak ride along a section of the Patapsco River. The ride began off of Woodstock Road and 3 1/2 hours later, we ended up in the Daniels Area of Patapsco State Park. Over a dozen friends came out to enjoy a beautiful day in the river and we even picked up about 30 pounds of trash out of the river along the way. Special thanks to our Kayak Captain Teddy Betts, and his side kicks, Betsy McMillion and Ken Hatch, for helping guide the kayakers along the way! Hope to see everyone again at our next ride in July!

On Saturday, June 19th, the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway partnered with good friend Kerrie Kyde, from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Patapsco State Park, to search out and hunt for the latest and most aggressive invasive plant to hit the Patapsco River Valley -- wavyleaf basketgrass. A group of volunteers learned how to identify this invasive, as well as other invasives and some native plants in the area along one of the hiking trails within the Avalon Area of Patapsco State Park. Armed with our GPS units and clipboards, we were ready to document areas where this new invasive has appeared. Fortunately, the only place where spotters have seen this invasive is near historic Belmont. So, mission accomplished! Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped come out on this hot and sticky Saturday morning!

Weed Captains Betsy McMillion and Barbara Smith spent two mornings removing weeds, climbing vines and pruning trees that were previously planted by the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway. Tree maintenance is part of PHG's commitment to insure that all trees planted have the best possible opportunity to survive! On Monday, June 7th, Betsy and Barbara targeted trees along the Grist Mill Trail near the Patapsco River in the Orange Grove Area of Patapsco State Park that were planted back in the fall of 2006! The following day, Tuesday, June 8th, they targeted trees that were planted in the fall of 2008 on Arbutus Middle School Property next to a section of Herbert Run. Oops - Betsy inadvertently deleted photos of Monday's tree maintenance, but managed to get photos of the team in action for Tuesday's work! Good news - the trees are growing!!!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway partnered with Patapsco State Park and R.E.I. to remove invasive garlic mustard and multi-flora rose and some litter from the Patapsco River watershed area inside the McKeldin Area of Patapsco State Park. Forty eight volunteers helped remove an estimated 103 pounds of invasives/trash from this watershed area! Special thanks to our Weed Captain Team: Betsy McMillion and Barbara Smith for their help, as well as all the wonderful R.E.I. employees and their families and Girl Scout Troop 1374 and other friends to help make today's cleanup a big success!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway partnered with Patapsco State Park and R.E.I. to conduct a river cleanup along the Orange Grove Area of Patapsco State Park. Forty eight volunteers helped remove an estimated 950 pounds of trash from this watershed area, including 25 filled trash bags and 250 bottles removed! Special thanks to our Stream Captain Team: Teddy Betts, Kit Valentine, Ted Williams and Diane Sweeney for their help, as well as all the wonderful R.E.I. employees and their families, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring and other PHG members and friends to help make today's cleanup a big success!

During the removal of the Union Dam a previously unknown wooden bridge that crossed the Patapsco River in the vicinity of the Dam was discovered. PHG is taking steps to ensure the newly discovered bridge is documented before it is removed. Construction on taking down the Union Bridge is underway. In June 2010, construction crews temporarily stopped work due to the recent finding of an old wooden bridge. Take a peek at what we found. Archeologists are researching now the history behind this wooden structure!

On Thursday, May 27th, Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway partnered with CCBC Catonsville Campus Professors Dr. Sonja Schmitz and Scott Jeffery and environmental science teachers (Kim Bickerstaff and Mark Kather) from Western School of Environmental Science & Technology in Catonsville as part of the BWET Program to conduct a stream survey of stream macroinvertebrates in the local stream that runs through the school property. Students observed some "critters" including a crane fly, slug, water strider, beetle, snails, flies, stone flies, as well as a lot of invasive English Ivy on the stream banks. This particular stream appears to be an intermittent stream and had very little water flowing through it, with high water flow after recent rainstorms. On June 1, students analyzed samples of stream macroinvertebrates from another section of Herbert Run to determine the water quality of the stream!