Cleaning Up Our Watershed One Community at a Time

Over 100,000 streams and rivers flow through 64,000 square miles of forest, fields, roads, cities, and towns on their way to the Chesapeake Bay. These waterways are an important resource for the communities that they flow through.

The average American generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day, and with 19 million of us living in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, it’s safe to say that plenty of trash makes its way into our local waterways.

The average person could be ingesting a credit card worth of plastic every week.

Plastics contain toxic chemicals such as pesticides and flame retardants.

Trash can take hundreds of years to decompose and break down.

Animals become entangled in trash.

Microplastics are ingested by fish and eventually consumed by humans.

18 Years of Cleaner Communities

Established in 2004, Project Clean Stream has offered 18 years of opportunities for local communities, companies, and conservationists, to come together and take action on their local streams, creeks, and rivers.

Volunteers have the opportunity to pick up trash in their communities, discover how their everyday decisions affect the overall health of their local waterways, and ultimately foster a healthier and more sustainable relationship with the Chesapeake.

Join us as long-time Project Clean Stream site captain, John Long, discusses what the events have done for his community.

 

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Over the last 5 years, 9,000 volunteers have removed 655,000 pounds of trash from our watershed.

 

 

 

69 cleanups were held during the spring 2022 Project Clean Stream season, and over 1,000 volunteers participated in removing 100,000 pounds of trash!

Contributing to Cleaner Communities

No matter where you live in the Chesapeake region, there is something you can do to create a tangible benefit for the broader Bay watershed we share.

Your gift today empowers community volunteers to have meaningful hands-on experiences that build lasting relationships within and beyond their communities and help protect our natural world.

Removing trash from our waterways while fostering a new generation of local stewards is a tangible upstream solution to a downstream problem.

 

Photo credit: Ryan Pelham/Bowie State University

Thank you for being a part of it!

  • $25 Supplies trash bags for 100 Project Clean Stream volunteers
  • $50 Supplies protective gloves for volunteers picking up trash at a single event
  • $100 Supports a small organization to lead a cleanup event and provide, supplies and snacks for their volunteers removing over 100 pounds of trash
  • $200 Restores a tennis court worth of lawn to native meadow and pollinator habitat
  • $300 Installs 1 rain barrel capturing roughly 7,500 gallons of stormwater per year in the Chesapeake Bay watershed!
  • $1,250 Designs, plants, and maintains a ΒΌ acre of trees to stabilize eroding banks, filter sediment, and provide shade, shelter, and food for fish and aquatic organisms

DONATE TODAY