It was a surprisingly wet Saturday in Massapequa for its first Creek Defender Day May 4th, this Saturday.  The spring has been a soggy one, but we all saw what we thought was a break in the rain for a couple of days beforehand.  So happy we had our tent, and so impressed at the turnout of 25, despite the wet weather, despite the fact it was the first time staging one, and despite the short runway we had to make this happen.
We needed the permission of Nassau County to enter into The Massapequa Preserve to do our clean up, and we got it:
Thank you Massapequa for showing the way!
Pretty soon we were set up
No shortage of trash along The Sunrise!
Formerly choked with trash! Lots of plastic bottles, cans and plastic bags. We doubled the flow in about 20 minutes of trash removal with waders.
Trash pile with Snowy Egret in the background:
Four tired defenders!
Kudos to Tom Dempsey, who teaches 9th Grade science at Massapequa. He did a fantastic job of rallying his community for this effort!