Clean up... It is done.... or is it?

October 7, 2007...

Shippensburg University Rachel Carson Alternative Fall Break Service Project

Salt Marsh Cleanup at Tom's Cove, Assateague Island, Virginia.

After just 3 hours and a few lost shoes, some sticky situations, a few bug bites, and after a lot of blood, sweat, and yes some tears, as a group we had accumulated two piles of rubbish from the salt marsh including the one shown in the image.

Although we picked up the usual obnoxious suspects including plastic bottles, aluminum cans, cigarette buts, shot gun shells, styrofoam containers, plastic bags, pressure treated lumber, pvc pipes, old crab pots, sneakers and other footware, etc., we were surprised upon reaching the north edge of the marsh closest to Tom's Cove by the amount of commercial netting materials that were washed into the marsh and left to become tangled in the chord grass. Given the discovery of significant quantities of this netting, the majority of our energies became focused on removing these netting materials. It was indeed all out war... this job required more time and was energy intensive. Everyone chipped in with strong backs, great hearts, and sacrificed their nice clean clothes in an effort to remove these materials.

Given the types, colors, and overall amount of netting present, it is apparent that there have been multiple instances (seasons?) where these materials have been deposited in the marsh during high tides. After numerous trips back to the parking area, and seeing the pile grow with each contribution, it gave us renewed energy to go back out and collect more. Before long we had accumulated more than 4 truckloads full of debris and netting!