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Sound Rivers Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz and Water Watch intern Georgia Harris met up with a scouting group this week for an introduction to water quality.

The scouts, part of a local home school co-op in Clayton, are currently working on an environmental badge.

“Their whole focus is on water conservation, so they reached out to us to help with their water conservation badge,” Emily said. “They had done some really cool things in the previous weeks, like making an edible aquifer and learning about the water cycle. This was an opportunity for them to get some mor hands-on experience.”

They started with the Clayton trash trap on Little Creek. One of 12 trash traps in Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program, the Clayton trash trap was installed in 2025.

“We had some differing ages and abilities, so we divided up and had some students and parents in the creek, cleaning out the trash trap, and another group walking the greenway, picking up the trash,” Emily said.

Highlights of the outing included identifying raccoon tracks along the creek banks, finding a dumped folding chair and tire. Emily said she was impressed by the kids’ passion for the cleanup, particularly one young scout whose favorite hobby is picking up trash — so much so, he brought his own trash pickers.

“These kids were so excited and enthusiastic about helping. They were all very well-versed in trash and why we shouldn’t litter and how it affects our land and waterways,” Emily said. “I see a lot of future Riverkeepers and environmental scientists in this group, for sure!”

At the end of the day, the scouting group picked up more than 50 pounds of trash from Little Creek and the surrounding area.

“I was very impressed by that,” Emily said. “They meant business.”

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