The Piscataway Hills shoreline is now more beautiful than ever, thanks to the 25th Annual Potomac River Cleanup.

Thirty volunteers from Piscataway Hills gathered at 9 a.m. on April 6 at Lot 39 Waterfront Park to pick up trash along Piscataway Creek. Working well past noon, the volunteers collected 48 bags of trash and six tires. At 20 pounds per bag, plus the tires, the workers pulled approximately 1,000 pounds of trash from the shore- line, estimated cleanup cocoordinator Debbie Kutzleb.

The cleanup included all the shoreline along Lot 39, along with about half a mile along the adjacent National Park Service property. Dave Lishin, the other cleanup co-coordinator, also picked up three bags and seven tires on the Accokeek side of Piscataway Creek.

Shoreline areas that had been cleaned in previous years had relatively little trash, allowing the cleanup effort to focus on additional stretches that needed attention. It was apparent to the volunteers that the annual cleanup has been steadily improving the condition of the Potomac River and its tributaries.

Beautiful spring weather aided this year’s cleanup effort, and the volunteers received coffee and donuts to keep up their strength during the work period, and were rewarded with a cookout at Lot 39 afterward.

The Potomac Cleanup is run by the Alice Ferguson foundation, which also runs the Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek. The 2013 cleanup included 633 sites reporting from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC, according to the Foundation. A total of 14,586 volunteers picked up 312 tons of trash, including 193,800 beverage containers 27,400 cigarettes, 27,200 plastic bags, and 1,314 tires.