The Observer Newspapers |

May 19 , 2008

Shame on Debris Dumpers

To the editor:

Shame on them! On whom? On the Stirrup Road homeowners.

Not all of them. Just on some of them—they will know who they are.

Claudia Thompson Deahl, Reston Association's environmental resource manager, took me for a walk on the path directly behind Stirrup Road. This took us through a stretch of woodland featuring native trees amid a variety of ferns and other groundcover, with occasional sunlit patches of grasses. Lovely.

But to our dismay we came across several areas where material had been dumped—leaves, branches—debris spoiling the scene and killing natural growth. No detective is needed to analyze the markings leading upward from the dumps to pin the blame for the dumping on the Stirrup Road residents above.

This is not a crime story, it is a story of thoughtlessness. I plan to come back to this lane in a couple of weeks, and I sincerely hope to find the scenery in unmarred loveliness. Alas, this is not the only spot in Reston's prized open space where dumping has taken place.

Let us hope and pray that readers of this letter will act as unofficial monitors to prevent future dumping and as organizers to gather neighbors to clean up the messes that dumpers have already made.

Bob Simon

Reston