THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411040243
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
Only Rudy Magnussen would love a northeaster for all the trash it blows around.
The Eastern Park resident looks forward to times when the north wind whips across the Lynnhaven River for a few days and blows the water up the creek that runs by his home. When the high tide dislodges a heap of trash from the marsh grasses, it's a happy day for Magnussen.
He's off in his little row boat or motor boat. Carrying his handmade cleanup tool - a bamboo pole with nails to spear trash affixed to the end - he cleans up the creek.
``Oh, I love a northeaster,'' Magnussen said. ``This way I can get trash I can't get otherwise, because I can row across the top of the marsh.''
Magnussen lives almost at the tail end of a little creek off the Pinetree Branch of the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River. The waterway flows between Eastern Park and Chesopeian Colony and ends at a culvert just off Virginia Beach Boulevard near Lynnhaven Road.
``Everything goes up the river,'' Magnussen said, ``and comes right up to me.''
And he's the clean-up man.
Magnussen said you'd be surprised at the kinds of things that get lodged back in the marsh grasses and in the mud near his house in all kinds of tides. The semi-retired, self-employed contractor has seen it all, from grocery carts to car batteries.
His batting average includes seven grocery carts and two car batteries, along with six storm windows, a 55-gallon barrel, six trash cans, 50 tennis balls, 20 tires and bags upon bags of trash. He's found basketballs, soccer balls, a woman's purse full of belongings and a bag of barely used clothing.
``There's also been six oil filters which I despise,'' he said, ``because the residue of the oil gets in the river.''
Just the other day, he found several brand new automobile tail light assemblies along with a couple of head rests, bobbing along in the creek. He has piles of wood from pier and other construction projects.
Whenever possible he recyles his trash. He donates usable items to charities and uses the wood in his workshop or in his fireplace.
He has considered formally ``adopting'' the creek as its clean-up man. But right now he won't do it because unlike northeasters, there is one trash maker that he really hates.
The single cause of the most litter in the creek is the trash that blows into the water from the Farm Fresh parking lot at Lynnhaven and Virginia Beach Boulevard, he said. Daily prevailing breezes from the south come right across the parking lot and blow all the trash right in the water which abuts the edge of the property.
Magnussen recently discussed the problem with the supermarket and with officials from the city. Farm Fresh was very cooperative, he said. They sweep the parking lot every day and and have agreed to pay for half of a fence if the property owner would pay for the other half. So far nothing has been done.
``I won't adopt the waterway as long as that condition exists,'' he said.
It's clear that no man could agree to clean up the amount of trash that's generated from the parking lot. A trip down the creek where the waterway and the parking lot meet is covered with litter, primarily bits and pieces of plastic cups and bags.
``And this is all brand new trash,'' he said. ``I'll pick it up one day and come back two days later and it's all back. All they need is a fence.''
Although the trashiest, the area around the parking lot is only a small part of the portion of shoreline and marsh under Magnussen's watchful eye. His ``territory'' extends for about a mile north toward the main part of the river. He often takes one of his great-grandchildren along for the experience.
``I'm trying to teach them to take care of the environment better than I did,'' Magnussen said. ``Goodness knows, I threw enough stuff in the river over the years.''
Magnussen began his clean-ups about a year and a half ago after after one of those northeasters he's learned to love.
``Well, I was standing on my bank one day and the tide was extremely high,'' he said, pointing out to the marsh. ``I looked over that way and it looked like a snowstorm, there was so much Styrofoam and plastic.''
Magnussen began then and there. So far he has collected 80 bags of trash on his clean-up forays.
``First it became a hobby,'' he said, ``then a challenge and now it's an obsession.''
P.S. Archaeologist William Kelso will speak to a meeting of the Princess Anne County/Virginia Beach Historical Society at 7 p.m. Thursday in Virginia Wesleyan College's Boyd Center. Kelso is directing an archaeological project currently under way at Jamestown in preparation for the 400th anniversary of Jamestown in 2007.
The meeting is open to the public.
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME and visit with soldiers from the past from 1 to 4 p.m. on Veterans Day, Friday at the Francis Land house. Meet ``veterans'' from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and the Civil War.
Admission is $2.50 for adults, $1 for children, 6 to 18, and modern-day veterans are admitted free. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Rudy Magnussen, an Eastern Park resident, often takes his
great-grandsons, Jacob Barfield, 5, and Taylor Barfield, 4, with him
to clean up the creek.
by CNB