Back to All Events

REGISTRATION CLOSED - Annual Potomac Cleanup Day

  • Potomac Conservancy, Fletcher's Boathouse 4940 Canal Road Northwest Washington, DC 20007 (map)

REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED. Both cleanup sites have reached their maximum capacity for volunteer sign-ups.

Please visit www.potomac.org/events for future cleanup opportunities. Thank you!

Take part in the biggest annual Potomac River cleanup of the year! Grab a friend and help restore healthy shorelines by removing litter, debris, and trash from local lands along the Potomac. 

In partnership with Alice Ferguson Foundation's Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, volunteers will join Potomac Conservancy for a fun spring cleanup day at two locations in Washington, DC.

Volunteer!

Get your hands dirty for clean water and make a difference in your community! If you want to participate, please RSVP to rau@potomac.org.

Fletcher’s Cove, Washington, DC FULL. CLOSED TO REGISTRATION.
Fletcher’s Cove is located along the C&O Canal National Historical Park on the Potomac River, between Chain and Key Bridges. Just minutes from downtown Washington, DC, Fletcher’s has hosted fisherman and recreationalists since the 1850s.
Directions >

Theodore Roosevelt Island, Washington, DC - FULL. CLOSED TO REGISTRATION.
Nestled along the Potomac River, between the John F. Kennedy Center and the George Washington Memorial Parkway, Theodore Roosevelt Island is a national memorial to America’s 26th president. Visitors can venture through the island from one of its many nature trails, take in sweeping views of the river and city scape, and canoe or kayak around its shores.
Directions >


Potomac Watershed Cleanup History

In 1989, staff at the Alice Ferguson Foundation’s Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center in Accokeek, Maryland saw a growing problem on the shores of the Potomac – trash. Staff at Hard Bargain teamed up with National Colonial Farm to plan a cleanup of Piscataway Park. That year, 150 volunteers removed 3 tons of trash from the Potomac’s shores at two cleanup sites.

Since 1989, Alice Ferguson Foundation has mobilized more than 60,000 volunteers, removing more than 3 million tons of trash from the watershed's streams, rivers, and bays. This once small cleanup effort has ballooned into a watershed wide day of service, with many different cleanup events hosted by a variety of organizations and individuals. In 2013 alone, 14,586 volunteers at 633 sites throughout Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC, collected 312 tons of litter from the Potomac watershed.