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Adopt Your Road

Do you realize that littering can cost municipalities millions of dollars annually in cleanup? Any kind of trash, especially thrown in places where it doesn’t belong, over time accumulates and threatens nature’s ecosystems. Besides, it paints an ugly picture of the beautiful natural world around us! Why is littering still such an incessant problem?

Well, the answer to that question is likely a lack of education on the deep-rooted effects of tossing your rubbish in nature. Today, many people don’t initially relate their actions to the bigger picture, to the larger potential consequences.

Since the beginning of time, mankind has thrown waste on the ground. It’s an action built into the habits of our species that wasn’t necessarily harmful due to biodegradable nature of most resources at that time. However, with the invention of synthetic materials in the 20th century, the world wasn’t educated on how our habits needed to change to sustain this new product’s excessive use. This mistake will forever haunt us and continue to destroy our Earth unless we take action.

The best way to wake up the world to the issue is for people to be engaged, actively seeing and experiencing the problem.

Many states have tackled the issue head on and opened this conversation through Adopt A Road, an initiative spearheaded by the Department of Transportation. The program’s goal is to have unsightly litter removed from roadsides by participating residents, businesses and organizations before it reaches local waterways. Every piece of debris or pollutants that ends up in our waterways can be problematic to the water quality we drink, disrupting our natural environment.

Between Healthwirefm and Newswirefm, we adopted 3 miles of rural road on the outskirts of Washington D.C. right along the Potomac River and the historic Encino Canal. These otherwise remote roads also include the historic marker Planetary Radio Emissions Discovery Site where in 1955 astronomers Bernard Burke and Kenneth Franklin realized that the planet Jupiter generates a strong source of radio waves. A discovery that led to the greater understanding of planetary magnetic fields, opening a new window in the exploration of our solar system.

Each time we clean up, there’s never a shortage of plastic cups, straws, wrappers and bottles to collect. Although it’s only 3 miles of road, through these efforts we are slowing damage to our waterways and protecting nearby animals who inhabit the area.

Being passionate about the outdoors, conserving nature, restoring the much needed biodiversity, and striving toward a zero-waste is central to the entire team at Healthwirefm and Newswirefm. We’ve also featured unconditional advocates for our planet across both tv networks. Sebastian Copeland, David de Rothschild, Emily Abrams, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Fox, or Fabien Cousteau and Céline Cousteau. Individually, our options are limited, yet together we can bring about systemic change.

Want to help and adopt your own road? You can contribute to the nationwide initiative here: https://montgomerycountymd.gov/adoptaroad

The Alison Ferguson Trash Free Potomac, the former Keep Montgomery County Beautiful task force created the Adopt a Road program in the early 90’s as part of the Alison Ferguson Trash Free Initiative (https://fergusonfoundation.org/history/).

You can also adopt a Rustic Roads. They are historic and scenic roadways in an area where natural, agricultural, or historic features are predominant. Learn more about Rustic Roads in Montgomery County.

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