Watershed is Clean. Time to Label it!

Saturday was a fantastic day for the Little Falls Watershed. Crews of volunteers in seven locations spent the morning cleaning trash from the creeks and pulling garlic mustard. At my station alone (Bethesda Pool), we pulled 14 bags of trash out of a section of the creek in Kenwood Forest that has never been cleaned as far as I can tell. I'll post more (and photos) as the reports come in.

So, moving right along, plans are finalizing for Label the Watershed April 25-26. We've cleaned it, now we will label the storm drains to remind people that everything in the gutters, sidewalks, driveways, parking lots, etc, flows right into the creek. Much of the trash we pulled out came in via the storm drains.

April 25 - from 1:00 to 3:00 we'll be at the Bethesda Library with maps and supplies.
Apirl 26 - from 11:00 to 5:00, we'll be at the Bethesda Pool Parking lot on Little Falls Parkway and Hillandale Road.

Stop by at anytime and pick up supplies. We'll send you out with a map to label 10 drains. Along with the affixing labels, we have door hangers to pass out to neighbors with information about the problem stormwater run-off causes and what people can do to help. It should take a team of four people about an hour.

Rain Plan:
We cannot glue the labels on if it is wet out, even a little drizzle.
So, the rain plan is:
For April 25: you can still come to the library and pick up supplies. Hopefully, it won't rain on April 26, so you can label the drains and return the supplies to the Bethesda pool and get your raffle tickets.
For April 26: If it's raining on Sunday, we will postpone to May 3. Check the this blog for up-to-date information.

Free Raffle Tickets and T-shirts:
When you return your supplies and marked map,we'll give you a raffle ticket for every storm drain you label. The raffle drawing will be at 4:00 on April 26, but you don't have to be present to win. We have great prizes including a nano shuffle donated by macUpgrades.

And we have free t-shirts for all the volunteers.

Partners, Sponsors and Donors
The best thing about this event is that we have been able to engage the whole community to support us. We are grateful to have many sponsors and partners:

Thank you to Chesapeake Bay Trust for partial funding, partners Bethesda Green, Friends of the Bethesda Library and the DC and Montgomery County governments.

Our sponsors include American Plant, macUpgrades, DAI, Giant Food, Planet Cotton, Advanced Energy Dynamics, and Press, Potter & Dozier, LLC. Raffle donors include Strosniders, macUpgrades, Mamma Lucias, Austin Grill, Ledo Pizza, Lord and Taylor, Tickled Pink, Aveda, Wild Bird Center, Safeway, All Fired Up, Cosi Restaurant, Lilit Cafe, Wow Cow, Green Paper Studio and Bethesda Magazine. Thank you to Honest Tea for in-kind donations.