The City of Harrisonburg will host its 24th annual Blacks Run Clean-Up Day on Saturday, April 9, and you’re not only invited – you’re needed.
The popular annual event allows volunteers from across the community to partner with Harrisonburg Public Works to remove items from Blacks Run that don’t belong in our waterway. Volunteers will get everything they need to be successful in the vital environmental effort.
The event will start with a check in and distribution of supplies at the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center parking lot, and volunteers will receive a map of the specific section in which they will be cleaning up. Participants are encouraged to stop by the Harrisonburg Public Works Green Scene, which features educational exhibits and activities about the environment.
Once volunteers have received their supplies, and visited the Green Scene, they will proceed to their clean up location. Volunteers can use #BRCD2022 during the clean-up to post pictures to social media of their efforts, including largest item collected, strangest item collected, favorite item collected, most enthusiastic volunteer group, and so many other categories – while showing off the great work volunteers do to help keep our streams and streets clean.
The Blacks Run Clean-up Day effort is expanding this year to include the Arbor Day Tree Planting event. Trees, and tree canopy, are very important in improving our waterways. Volunteers will plant around 50 native trees at Thomas Harrison Middle School during the Arbor Day event, while volunteers are also planting trees along the Northend Greenway as part of the stream restoration project happening there. You can pre-register for the event on the Harrisonburg Public Works Facebook page, or cleanstream.org. Pre-registration allows you to select which area you prefer to volunteer: stream clean-up, street clean-up or the Arbor Day tree planting. Space is limited for specific areas so register early.
While tree planting events like this one are important to growing our tree canopy, they also help Harrisonburg earn the Tree City USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation. This year, in addition to receiving the Tree City USA award for the 16th year, The Friendly City also received the Tree City USA Growth Award for demonstrating environmental improvement and higher level of tree care.
“Doing tree plantings really help build a sense of pride in our community,” Harrisonburg Public Works Green Space Manager Jeremy Harold said. “It helps our residents feel like they are doing something to promote a healthy watershed while also making areas in town look nicer. When people come back to these areas it makes them feel a sense of pride that they were a part of doing something good for their community.”
You can find additional information about Blacks Run Clean-up Day and the Tree planting in the Event listing on the city’s Facebook page.
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