NAPS Launches Flotilla for Creek Cleanup

With a warm wind and cloudy skies, 62 student and adult volunteers participated in the annual Creek Cleanup organized by the Northumberland Association for Progressive Stewardship (NAPS) on Sunday, October 6th.

After a lunch for all participants at the Mallard Bay Community Clubhouse near Heathsville, seven skiff captains shoved off with cleanup teams to remove boatloads of trash and recyclables from the shorelines of the upper Great Wicomico River and adjacent creeks, reported NAPS president Mike Ahart. A small group of kayakers tackled the headwater creeks of Bush Mill Stream and Crabbe Mill Stream.

The teams covered over 30 miles of shoreline, bringing the “catch” back to the Mallard Bay piers to be unloaded and sorted. Bottles, cans, plastic, fishing gear and dock debris were removed from the water and shore, plus lawn furniture, a sunken sailboat, old crab baskets and oyster floats, scrap metal, tires and various other trash.

Prizes were awarded to the students on the teams with the largest total haul, largest single item, and most unusual item (see photos). In addition, each registered participant was awarded a NAPS-designed T-shirt with a trash crab logo and the message: “don’t trash my Bay!”
READ MORE and see full slideshow at NAPSva.org/2019-Creek-Cleanup