On Saturday, October 31, the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway partnered with the Port of Baltimore Environmental Committee for a watershed cleanup in the Orange Grove Area of Patapsco State Park. Port of Baltimore employees and their families, Howard Community College students, FPVHG members and other friends all joined together to remove an amazing 4,190 pounds of trash/junk from this watershed area (our wonderful state park rangers picked up the trash so quickly, we were not able to take photos of all the trash piles, but they tell us we filled up two of the park's dumpsters)! Even though it was a cloudy and misty Saturday morning, 70 volunteers were split up into four groups, targeting cleanups on both sides of the Patapsco River near the swinging bridge, Bloede Dam, and the Cascade Falls and Vineyard Springs trail areas. Aside from the usual plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans and food wrappers we normally find in cleanups, we also removed 2 plastic lawn chairs, 4 tires, an orange traffic cone, 50 foot long silver tarp, flip flops, underwear---including man's boxer shorts--pair of pants, sweater, car parts and fender, part of a railroad track, dirty diaper, milk jug, old safe, metal buckets, racket ball, soccer ball, tennis balls, football, bag of compost, cigarette lighter, sunglasses, styrofoam swimming noodle, tennis racket canvas bag, lots of scrap metal, styrofoam pieces from an old cooler, lots of broken glass and an old peel-off top aluminum can. Some of the wildlife spotted by our volunteers include deer, trees scraped by deer antlers, toads, fish, squirrels, millipede, big spider and two snakes! Special thanks to all of our helpers who truly made a difference in just three hours this weekend in the park!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another stream cleanup in partnership with the Southwest Baltimore County Democratic Club and the Wilderness Bed & Breakfast along Thistle Road in Catonsville! Forty volunteers helped remove a record-breaking 6,400 pounds of trash from along the Thistle Branch watershed! These energetic helpers included: PHG members, SWBC Democratic Club members, Howard Community College students, Salem Lutheran Church members, MD/DC/VA hiking group members, nearby neighbors and other volunteers. Aside from the usual bottles, cans, plastic bags and food wrappers, volunteers also removed 92 tires, a 50 foot iron pipe, stuffed animals, hubcaps, carpet, pile of tangled rope, washing machine, Metal Baltimore Sun paper box, motorized bike, hot water heater, car parts, sheet metal, toilet, and even a bathroom sink! Because of the steep banks, stream crew was assisted by a road crew with ropes! Two volunteers with pick up trucks rode up and down the road collecting trash to consolidate all the trash in one spot! Thistle Branch runs over solid rock at many locations. Hugh boulders form perfect pools of water up to 3 feet deep with a half dozen waterfalls oxygenating the water. Schools of minnows were sited .2 miles upstream. Volunteers also saw crayfish, brown algae, green algae, moss, a fox hole, a yellow jacket nest and some significant log jams. Historically, they also discovered remnants of a mill foundation and dam structure. We believe that based on the trash, there are 4 distinct generations of trashers! Special thanks to the SWBC Democratic Club for providing coffee and donuts for our volunteers, Wilderness Bed & Breakfast for allowing all our volunteers to temporarily park on their beautiful lawn, Baltimore County Highways for removing all the trash and all of our volunteers for our most complicated, yet successful, cleanup this year!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway (PHG) sponsored another cleanup in partnership with the Michael Baker, Jr. Group of Linthicum and our other PHG members and volunteers along the Stoney Run watershed, located on Patapsco State Park land, in Anne Arundel County off of Furnace Road in Linthicum! Thirty one volunteers helped remove an incredible 4,450 pounds of trash from this watershed area! Stream Watcher Kevin Hebert regularly monitors and cleans this section of Stoney Run, and with the assistance of Michele Monde of the Baker Group, they targeted specific sections where a large amount of illegal dumping has taken place. Aside from the usual bottles, cans, plastic bags and food wrappers we usually find at cleanups, the more unusual items that were removed include a Barracuda 1500 water gun, Yingling beer box, lots of mesh, a smelly deer carcass, lots of concrete pieces, mattress, boxspring, wood/wire animal cage, parts of a wood bed, glass windshield, garden hose, pair of jeans, three washing machines, car hood, easy chair, beat up safety cones, old car sign, car parts, lawn chairs, soda crate containers, stove, refrigerator and 103 tires. An unbelievable effort from several of the Baker Group volunteers included digging out embedded tires, washing machines, stove, refrigerator and other scrap metal that has been there for who knows how many decades!!!! Five huge piles of trash and one filled park dump truck of trash was removed with the help of our friends from Patapsco State Park and Anne Arundel County Highways! We plan to return to this site again in April 2010 during Project Clean Stream, to help remove the other stockpile of tires and other trash that still needs removed. Thanks again to all the volunteers for a job well done and helping restore the natural beauty to this area!

Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored another cleanup along a section of Sawmill Branch off of Dutton Avenue in Catonsville. Students and teachers from Catonsville Alternative High School and PHG volunteers helped to remove approximately 650 pounds of trash from this section of stream. Stream watchers Alice Dorshow, Rob Flint and Marion Flint told us about a large amount of debris in the stream, so a group cleanup was scheduled! Most of the trash was a direct result of litter that has been washed down nearby storm drains into the stream -- plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans, plastic bags and food/snack wrappers. Other interesting trash removed includes a very heavy pipe with concrete attached, long plastic hose, 7 golf balls, nerf football, soccer ball, real football, parts of a cell phone, mouse trap, lots of miniature glass liquor bottles, part of a sign, shovel, hypodermic needle, tire tread, lots of pieces of a large truck tire, plastic crate and big black bags full of trash. Other interesting items spotted by our volunteers include: flying spider, deer tracks, wild animal skulls, worms, white mushrooms growing on a tree, poison oak, invasive English ivy, tad poles, fish, bugs and even deer droppings! Thanks again to all 19 volunteers for filling up 18 bags of trash and removing it from the Sawmill Branch!!!!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway are participating in a new stream quality program, BWET, in partnership with CCBC Catonsville Campus and students and professors from Howard Community College. The first pilot stream that was selected was Bascom Creek, a small stream that feeds into the Deep Run Branch in Elkridge in the heart of the Harwood Park neighborhood. PHG Executive Director Betsy McMillion and CCBC Professor Sonja Schmitz, along with CCBC intern Jeff Klein, began the project by staking out a section of Bascom Creek for evaluation. Later that week, a group of HCC students from an Honors Biology Class, Professor Debby Luquette, Intern Jeff Klein and Betsy McMillion came out to the stream, scooping up 20 samples and identifying different species of "critters" that were found in the stream to determine stream quality. The following week, Betsy McMillion, Jeff Klein, Debby Luquette, and HCC Students came out and identified different species of trees, invasive and non-invasive vegetation. The results will be compiled and eventually uploaded on a website. To learn more about the BWET program, go to http://student.ccbcmd.edu/~sschmit4/BWET/BWET.html.

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway (PHG) sponsored another cleanup along with partners Community College of Baltimore Catonsville Campus and International Coastal Cleanup on Sunday, September 28, 2009! Twenty nine volunteers removed an estimated 825 pounds of scrap metal and 21 bags of assorted trash! Volunteers joined us from the Spiral Scouts; college students from HCC, CCBC-Catonsville Campus and UMBC; students from Wilde Lake, Old Mill and Glen Burnie High Schools; and other PHG members and volunteers! Interesting trash items include: a ladies shoe, newspaper binding cords, styrofoam coffee cups, bubble wrap, lots of plastic bags, lots of bottles and cans, broom, masonry pieces, styrofoam packing peanuts, rugs, bed spring, window framing, ceramic tiles, china brush, jacket, hub cap, fencing, volley ball, basketball, rubber ball, lots and lots of golf balls, scarf, tire rim and even a piece of a kitchen sink! One of the scouts said they also found a washing machine that "would not fit into the trash bag." Jon Merriman spent the entire time trying to dig out the heavily embedded saw table, lawn chair and King's Department Store grocery cart next to the stream, and almost did it, but alas -- it will have to wait until the next cleanup! Our volunteers were also to save the county some tax dollars by returning the heavy, and I do mean heavy, manhole cover over the sewer structure (see photo). Our volunteers also discovered crayfish, tadpoles, a raccoon's jawbone, and a beautiful 100 old year old tree with this incredible orange fungus growing on it (see photo). A job well done thanks to all of our volunteers!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway (PHG)sponsored another successful cleanup on a Saturday morning with 23 volunteers who removed 2,045 pounds of litter and junk from the Patapsco River and its banks in a section of Patapsco State Park, off of Ilchester Road in Ellicott City. This cleanup was a result of a request by our stream watcher, Teddy Betts, who regularly monitors this area who told us a group cleanup was needed. Volunteers lent us a hand from Howard Community College, CCBC Catonsville Campus, local church group and other PHG Friends. As expected, we discovered and removed a large volume of bottles, cans and food wrappers from this area, and of course it wouldn't be a cleanup without at least one tire -- we removed six! Other interesting items uncovered include a flashlight, office chair, lots of flip flops, a BIG blanket, Colt 45 bottle, car radio, car parts, cigarette packs, shirts, boxer shorts, 5 pairs of underwear, bunch of socks, styrofoam cooler pieces, candy wrappers, tennis balls, basketball, rubber ball, fishing lures, broken fishing reel, BGE coin and 5 car tires and 1 large truck tire with a rim. Other interesting discoveries while cleaning up include a live mouse, large bullfrog, big spider, huge worms, and a dead deer carcass. Special thanks to all the volunteers who made today's cleanup a big success in helping us to preserve, protect and enhance the Patapsco River watershed1

Working with John Shirk, from the Baltimore County Public Schools Grounds Services Office, we are currently staking out an area for our upcoming November 14th tree planting at Arbutus Elementary School. An area has been selected on the recommendation of Mr. Shirk along the stream banks where there is obvious erosion and little vegetative buffer. Take a peek at the before pictures of what this area looks like now -- after all the proper authorizations are acquired, please join us on Saturday, November 14th from 9 am -12 pm, rain or shine to plant 50 new trees! For more information, email patapscofriend@gmail.com!

A rain barrel workshop, "Everything You Wanted to Know About Rain Barrels But Didn’t Know Who to Ask" was held on Wednesday, September 2 at the Miller Branch Library. This workshop was presented in partnership with the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway, Howard County Master Gardeners and the Miller Branch Library. This was one of a series of talks and workshops sponsored by the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway in our mission to preserve, protect and enhance the history, heritage and natural resources of the Patapsco River Valley. Gallons of a valuable commodity run off our roofs and enter storm drains. As part of a “green” lifestyle, participants learned why and how to harvest rainwater for garden use. This presentation looks at today’s rain barrel, illustrates how to assemble one, and gives advice on using a rain barrel system in the garden, including where to buy them, precautions and covenant regulations. The presenter, Sylvia Huestis, is a rain barrel user and Howard County Master Gardener and member of the Master Gardener Bay Wise Committee. Sylvia is also part of the 9th grade team from Hammond High School and on the Columbia Association Watershed Advisory Committee. Over 30 participants joined us for this talk from Baltimore and Howard Counties!

On a Monday morning PHG members Betsy and Jim accompanied Ranger Amy of Patapsco State Park to show areas where large junk items have been dumped several decades ago on parkland near the Patapsco River. This is an area where a new trail is being considered, but it needs to be cleaned up. Because of the difficulty of access, a few neighbors who live off of College Avenue have allowed us to access this troubled section of parkland by use of their driveways to get to these areas. We are looking for a large adult group that would be willing to work with us to haul out this trash and turn this area close to the old St. Mary's property a beautiful area for a new trail.