The Friends of Dyke Marsh partnered with the National Park Service and participated in Clean the Bay Day, on May 2, 2026, a day when over 2,300 volunteers collected trash from the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. 

Scott Hill with the George Washington Memorial Parkway/National Park Service and Louise Potter (not pictured) staffed a table in Belle Haven Park.  Carolyn Gamble and Brendan McNickle managed the FODM table at the Haul Road Trail entrance.

In Dyke Marsh and along the Potomac River shoreline, 35 hearty volunteers hauled out 18 bags of trash in two hours at low tide.  

Volunteers filled 18 bags of trash.

The most common items were plastic bottles, aluminum cans, Styrofoam pieces and bottle caps.  One dedicated volunteer found a rubber shoe.

Discarded food, snack and beverages containers are often found in trash cleanups.	John Romano displayed the shoe he found in Dyke Marsh.

Since 1989, more than 177,000 volunteers have removed more than 7.1 million pounds of debris from Virginia's lands and waterways on Clean the Bay Day.