The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway sponsored a tree planting at Arbutus Elementary School. Preparation work began on Friday the 13th where PHG members and HCC student volunteers helped with preparations for Saturday's tree planting. The hard rain didn't stop our volunteers from marking spots where the trees were to be planted and building a temporary tree limb bridge so our volunteers could safely cross the stream to the planting site! On a drizzily Saturday morning, 50 volunteers showed up to help us plant 50 trees in a far section of the Arbutus Elementary School yard, right off of a section of Herbert Run. Howard Community College students, CCBC students, UMBC students, Centennial High School Key Club students, Cub Scout Pack 432, GECA members, MD/DC/VA Hiking Group, Sudbrooke Middle School students, and other PHG members and Arbutus residents came out to help us plant 20 Tulip Poplars, 10 Sycamores and 20 Birch trees! Special thanks to Best Buy of Elkridge, who donated funds that enabled us to pay for our tree planting supplies today and for next Saturday's tree planting! Many of our volunteers named their trees after special people or made up a name that reminded them of their experience, including Alexander (Christina's cousin), Allie, Betsy (after Betsy McMillion, today's tree captain), Big Capricorn, Bob, Chad (Carson's future son), Chindia (combination of China/India -- planters' heritage), Chuck (in memory of Centennial High janitor), Clumpy (hard roots when digging), Cubbie (after Cub Scout Pack 432), Debby (in honor of HCC Professor Luquette), Fedro (favorite Centennial High School teacher), Flacko (Raven Football Player #5), Fredglenna (parents that live behind the planting site), Frizzy (because of the condition of planters hair this day), Katie (daughter), Kelsi (daughter), Kona (Devin's dog), Nicole (the nice lady who let us cut through her yard to get to the planting site), Purple Root (by cub scouts), Reporter (named after the cute reporter who was asking questions), Rusty (named by Centennial High students), Sycie (named by cub scouts), Timothy, Vicki and Woody! Alkso, a special thanks to the energetic volunteers who also helped to trim back the weeds and remulch the 50 trees that were planted last November 2008 at Arbutus Middle School today as well (see last photo of the results--the volunteers were done before I could get their photos!!!). Special thanks to all the volunteers who helped on both Friday and Saturday to make this another successful tree planting!

The Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway, along with the Friends of Patapsco Female Institute sponsored an informal history talk about Ellicott City by local author and renowned historian, Joetta Cramm. Joetta Cramm gave an informal presentation telling about the evolution of Ellicott City during the second half of the 20th century, when she moved to the area. Twenty seven people listened to the Ellicott City talk in historic Mt. Ida. Thanks to all the members and new friends who joined us!

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!