Laurel Hill Park Volunteer Team co-leads Susan Farmer and Susan Laume, both Virginia Master Naturalists, collaborated with Park Authority staff on the vision, design, and grant funding for anti-littering signage
Laurel Hill Park recently highlighted some common “good” bugs … and one big bad one. No, it’s not the Spotted Lantern Fly recently seen in numbers in the park. This bad bug is arguably an even greater danger to human health and the ecosystem — the “litter bug”.
Lorton’s park, and parks through out Fairfax County’s extensive park system, have struggled to keep littering and excessive trash discarded by park users under control. Some users bring food and drink to consume in the parks, and leave behind paper wrappers, bottles and cans, plastic bottle caps, and food scraps on the grounds; not properly disposed. Beyond being unsightly, litter creates a fire hazard, and indirect health hazards, from the bacteria, rats, roaches, and mosquitoes it attracts. Litter which includes food scraps, also attracts birds and other small mammals to picnic areas, increasing possible unwelcome human-animal interaction.
Area park maintenance crews struggle to keep rentable picnic shelters trash-free. Area four maintenance operations, covering the Lorton area, added a commercial size trash dumpster in a unseen spot near the park. This change came after an employee suggested reducing the frequent long runs of trash bag filled trucks to the office collection site multiple times per day and week. Even though Fairfax County owns a landfill, the Park Authority pays for landfill use , as other users. Not just a Fairfax County parks problem, Clean Fairfax says, “Virginia spends about five million tax dollars annually for litter cleanup.”
In 2022, Fairfax County began levying a five cent tax on using throw-away plastic bags in an effort to deter littering and pollution county-wide, as well as to encourage reduced use of plastic. The use tax has been deemed highly successful: significantly reducing plastic bags found as litter, reducing use by about four million bags, and adding $ 6 million dollars to the environment fund it created. Under a grant awarded from the Plastic Bag Use Tax fund, new Laurel Hill Park anti-littering signs go after other items of litter, providing another reminder that littering is not a socially acceptable practice.
Laurel Hill Park’s signs were a collaboration between the Park’s volunteer team and the Park Authority. The draft design created by the volunteer team was inspired by the 1960s “Keep America Beautiful” campaign, which included famous ads, such as “Don’t Be a Litter Bug,” the “Crying Indian,” and “Susan Spotless.” The signs were designed to include an educational element about the park’s common “good” insects. Well known local area macro insect photographer, Judy Gallagher, suggested colorful native insects to include, as a contrast to the “ugly” litter bug. FCPA Interns Amanda Dawson and Timothy Klopfer, and other Park Authority staff, tweaked the volunteer’s design, contracted a sign maker, and assisted with the installation.
The signs are posted at each of Laurel Hill Park’s rentable picnic shelters. Time will tell if they are effective, along with other FCPA measures to curtail littering. On a positive note, signs posted outlining kite flying rules proved effective in nearly eliminating what had become a substantial amount of unsightly and dangerous kite string littering in the park. Until better trash disposal takes hold, volunteers and ploggers are expected to maintain their trash vigil (see Connection, Nov 23-29, pg 8) .
