MLK weekend events include Peirce Mill, Melvin Hazen and Trail 9 cleanups

Volunteers show off their invasive species haul (Rock Creek Conservancy photo)

For the 12th year in a row, volunteers will spend the Martin Luther King holiday weekend sprucing up Rock Creek Park and its tributaries. Rock Creek Conservancy and the National Park Service are hosting several trash and invasive species removal events from Saturday, January 15th through Monday, January 17th.

Volunteers will be picking up trash and removing invasive plants from within Rock Creek Park and its watershed. The closest socially-distanced group cleanups are taking place at Peirce Mill, and at two of Rock Creek Conservancy’s five mini-oases, Melvin Hazen West and Trail 9. The mini-oases are restoration and demonstration projects that involve removing invasive species and returning native plants to the ecosystem.

Volunteers at the mini-oases will focus on removing invasives. Register here for the Saturday, January 15th Trail 9 cleanup at Broad Branch Road and Beach Drive, and here for the Melvin Hazen event on Monday, January 17th.

There are two Peirce Mill cleanups. The first, on the 15th, will focus on invasives. And the second, on January 17th, focuses on trash removal.

Online registration is required, and if these events fill up, there are more on the weekend’s calendar. Rock Creek Conservancy also encourages us to do individual cleanups during MLK weekend, or any day. All they ask is that you register your mini-cleanup and report back with details of your trash haul.

“These options can take place at home, helping to protect the park from the outside in, and allow everyone to be a Rock Creek steward, regardless of availability,” says the conservancy.

And if you prefer to work with a group, socially-distanced cleanups are added to the Rock Creek Conservancy service calendar all the time. Volunteers will again work on removing invasive plants at Trail 9 on Saturday, January 22nd. Melvin Hazen East is getting some attention on January 29th, and volunteers return to the Melvin Hazen West mini-oasis on February 12th.