Chris Cohen (foreground) and Fran Corradino decide that it is too wet and slippery to clean out the runoff area so they will wait when it is dryer to get down into the creek. Photo by Abigail Constantino.
On any clear, crisp morning Chris Cohen, of Burke, and Fran Corradino, of Annandale, walk to the Starbucks on Burke Centre Parkway. They start off at Cohen’s house, cross the street towards Wooden Hawk Path and take any of the many trails that intersect it.
They get a drink and stop to chat with other retired regulars. They, along with another friend Martine Stubener, of Fairfax, do this everyday, except when the weather is bad (i.e. It is pouring).
On the walk back, they take out the garbage bags they brought with them and they don gloves. Then they get to work picking up trash they see on the way back to Cohen’s house.
“I think if [the Conservancy] just puts ‘Don’t litter’ signs it might help,” said Cohen. The areas where they pick up trash vary and they might be on Conservancy, county or a business’ property.
“It’s everybody's job. The borders get blurred, whose responsibility it is. And, instead of worrying about whose responsibility it is, we just want to do something about it,” she said.
EACH YEAR, boy scouts volunteer to walk the trails and clean litter, said James McCormick of the Burke Centre Conservancy in an email. Maintenance crews also clean trails that lead to commercial stores. In addition, he said that there is a volunteer team that collects litter in target areas and trash cans are placed at key locations.
“There’s always stuff to pick up,” said Cohen. The Conservancy placed trash cans but people just don’t use them, she said. “They don’t even throw their dog doodoo. They put them in the plastic bag and then toss them up in the tree. Why would you do that?”
She said that it might be helpful to add a few more trash bins to remind people to throw their litter properly.
On their walk on Thursday, Dec. 10, Cohen and Corradino decided to check out the area behind the Burke Racquet and Swim Club, a place they have not explored since they started walking and picking up trash in August.
Cohen and Corradino immediately saw trash on the hillside. There is a fence that separates the club from the shopping center. Cohen climbed the hill while Corradino stayed at the bottom. They filled up their bags pretty quickly.
Cohen spotted several areas on the hillside that had piles of trash—glass and plastic bottles, cans, food wrappers and containers, boxes, clothes hangers, a broken fluorescent bulb and plastic crates.
Corradino’s loot was almost the same. Soon, both had two large bags filled with heavy trash. They wondered how they were going to be able to carry them home. Fortunately, there was a trash bin nearby.
“There’s all these stores and they have backyards that have dumpsters. Those dumpsters are just worthless because people just leave boxes in there, they don’t break them down. So the boxes and the tissue paper and styrofoam, they’re all over the place,” said Corradino.
Dixon Jordan, of Springfield, is one of the people they meet at Starbucks. He calls Cohen and Corradino civic servants.
“They come out here and take out all that trash. I always admire people that do service above self,” he said.
COHEN AND CORRADINO started walking together when Cohen’s husband, Dennis, asked Corradino if she would walk with Chris, whose mother had just died. “He thought it would be good for her to do that,” said Corradino.
They started collecting trash almost immediately after they started their daily walks.
“We were enjoying walking and we realized we’d see these things and we thought, ‘We should bring a bag because this doesn’t look good.’ It just kind of evolved. We brought gloves right away because you hear stories,” said Cohen.
They have seen needles and medicine containers. They have theories on how they get to the woods. “We figure that’s kids, taking it from their house, coming into the park,” said Corradino.
One thing they do not pick up is cigarette butts. “It’s just gross,” said Corradino.
But they have picked up a grocery cart and a tire. The grocery cart they lugged back to the grocery store, the tire they left on the side of the trail, hoping maintenance crews would pick it up. They saw the tire back in the creek a few days later.
The intrepid women have no hesitation going into the runoff areas along the creek. But they take precautions and wisely decide if an area is too wet or slippery to reach.
“We try to be careful,” said Cohen, especially in the summertime when “the poison ivy is so bad.” She said she and Corradino have gotten poison ivy three times each.
Cohen believes that education is important in combatting the problem of littering. Parents and teachers should start teaching that one should not litter, she said. “Don’t wait for someone else to pick it up. It helps kids learn. It helps people think about it more.”
“If you see stuff…pick it up,” said Corradino.