YOU CAN SAVE

ACCOTINK CREEK!

Stop the warm, dirty water reaching and destroying life in Accotink Creek!

Rain on roofs and streets heats up and rushes into the storm drain carrying GET YOUR BRAIN WET! pollution and trash directly to the ! Join Friends of Accotink Creek, an all-

Warmer water has lower oxygen than volunteer organization restoring Accotink cooler water. Aquatic life needs oxygen! Creek watershed!

We all need clean drinking-water! Accotink Creek runs through one of the Find just one other person who cares!  Responsibly use pesticides/ fertilizers!  finest wildlife corridors in Fairfax County. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸><((((º>¸.·´¯`·.¸. ><((((º> Only fertilize lawns in the fall and use Accotink Creek passes through Eakin, Wakefield, and Accotink phosphate-free fertilizer. Encourage the VOLUNTEER! Stream Valley Parks; Ft. Belvoir and the natural predators to control your pests. Use Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, then drains JOIN OUR ALL VOLUNTEER boric acid or insecticidal soap; they’re less into the , affecting waters of WATERSHED GROUP! toxic to aquatic life than pesticides. Chesapeake Bay. Additional information is PROTECT OUR STREAM!  Plant native plants!  at www.accotink.org and Volunteer Activities Include: Grow varieties of attractive native plants that require fewer chemicals, less http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/lake- accotink/thebay.htm maintenance and support native wildlife.

 Practice Good Water Stewardship!  Help “Team Accotink” to conserve, restore, DIRECT DOWN SPOUTS AWAY FROM and enhance enjoyment of the flora, fauna, YOUR DRIVEWAY! Keep our stream from and natural habitat of our watershed. drowning! Use the natural cooling and Care about Accotink Creek! pollutant-filtering ability of soil & plants. • Stream Monitoring Projects • Install dry wells, rain gardens & rain barrels to capture water and release it slowly! Use porous materials such as spaced bricks or gravel for driveways & patios instead of asphalt or concrete, slowing stormwater runoff and increasing infiltration into the groundwater.

Financial incentives help make it happen: www.accotink.org/ConservationAssistance.htm  Be the voice of your watershed!  Contact us at: • Nature Walks • Elected officials, property managers, and [email protected] • Invasive Plant Removal • neighbors need to know what they can do • Storm Drain Marking • to preserve our and need to • Stream Cleanup • know that you care. Raise your voice on Join at www.accotink.org • Habitat Restoration • behalf of Accotink Creek!

Friends of Accotink Creek What is a Watershed? Accotink Creek Watershed

Vision A watershed is an area of land in which We, the Friends of Accotink Creek, groundwater and surface are committed to protecting, water drain to a particular SPS site Streams promoting and restoring the water waterway. We all live, drive Lakes quality, natural habitat, and and work in a watershed. So ecological wellbeing of the no matter where one lives or works, watershed protection Accotink Creek watershed. begins on one’s own roof, driveway, We intend to: yard, the roadway and workplace!

The Storm Drain Connection! 1. Foster environmental Fairfax County initiated a Storm drains convey rain water, trash awareness, education, and countywide Stream enhance recreational use; and pollutants from our work sites and Protection Strategy (SPS) homes, parking lots, roads, driveways, Program which entailed the 2. Reduce storm runoff and its roofs and lawns directly to our streams. sampling of all the major effects, restore habitats, The sudden rush of streams and tributaries throughout the county. preserve land; and runoff that accompanies each Resource Protection Area 3. Enlist broad-based public and rainstorm scours Watershed Restoration Area organization participation and overwhelmed Miles support. stream channels, speeding erosion. The resulting fine sediment smothers the bottom-dwelling

invertebrates that form the foundation of the food chain.

So what?

By reducing runoff and erosion, we can keep the creek cleaner and more inviting

for frogs, fish, trees, and people, too!

Financial incentives to help

“Team Accotink” volunteers sweep the your creek and community! creek bed to beat the litterbugs during our We can make it happen at our homes, civic twice-annual stream cleanups along the associations, houses of worship, and more. length of Accotink Creek. Financial incentives from the Conservation Assistance Program make it Friends of Accotink Creek easy to care about Accotink Creek! www.accotink.org/ConservationAssistance.htm Version: September, 2016 Graphic Design: Michele & Clair Garman, Robert Murphy