Saturday, April 25 was the MA Department of Conservation and Recreations’ (DCR) Annual Park Serve Day, an event where volunteers are invited to help spruce up facilities, clean coastlines, clean and maintain trails, and plant flowers across the state for the summer recreation season.

Echoing DCR’s idea that state parks are valuable resources that belong to all of us, and we should all take pride in them, the Neponset River Watershed Association, partnered with DCR to host a clean-up event at the newly opened Quincy RiverWalk.

Click here to see photos of the Quincy RiverWalk Clean-up.

The day started off sunny and windy, as about 60 volunteers arrived at 9am to join NepRWA staff, board members, and DCR employees to begin the clean-up.  For three hours, volunteers picked up all sorts of debris from the path, from the Neponset Landing Pier to Squantum Point, and made a very visible impact in the area.  Here’s just a sampling of what they found:

Styrofoam Dunkin Donuts coffee cups: med size (200+), large (150+)
Bottle caps of all sizes (150+)
Nip (alcohol) bottles (50-60)
Syringes (dozens)
Cigarette lighters (dozens)
Construction hay bales (12)
Wood planks (hundreds)
Variety of metal bolts (dozens)
Orange construction markers (12)
Metal clamps from train track (5-6)
Styrofoam food containers (50+)
Plastic grocery bags (shredded)
Laundry detergent bottles (2)
Oil and other marine engine additive plastic containers (12)
Various sizes of plastic water bottles (100+)
Other drink bottles (50-75, mostly Gatorade)
Aluminum cans (10)
Glass bottles (10)
Car tires (2)
Mattress (1)
Spray cans: full (2), used (5)
Tennis balls (8-9)
Shoes (5)
Sneakers (1)
Oil filter
Marine styrofoam
Large marine float for a dock
Pick-up truck bed liner
Rubber rat
No dumping sign
American flag
Metal sign post w cement block attached
Dead dog
Dead bird

Thanks to the Neponset Landing Apartments for their generous donation!