Almost half over and already April has been a busy time where Clean Rivers Month is concerned. In Western Tidewater, the Franklin Garden Club and Historic Southside Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists are sponsoring a clean up in and around the two rivers we call the Blackwater and Nottoway.

Other civic and social groups, as well as businesses, have also actively been patrolling in different areas throughout the county. To name a few, just last Saturday morning the GFWC Tarrara Woman’s Club led the work of many men, women and teens to pick up litter on three roads in Boykins. Around that same time, volunteers were involved in a related activity of Park Day. Several guys and gals did other outdoor maintenance at the Mahone’s Tavern and Museum in Courtland. This past Thursday, members of Hubs Peanuts did their yearly search of roads and fields in Sedley and filled many bags of trash.

While these groups certainly are to be commended for their work, we must also call on other individuals and organizations to step up and participate. The more people involved in keeping Western Tidewater clean and beautiful, the better.

We acknowledge and sympathize with the cry, “But people will only keep littering!”

True, it seems that no sooner does one group clean up, then another set of individuals tosses out trash without a second thought. Such patrol work truly seems like a Sisyphean task, but until an effective way can be found to convince folks not to litter, clean-ups must be done.

Otherwise, we’ll all drown in trash.