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Zachary Young went seeking trash Saturday and found a little treasure.

The 8-year-old from Kensington was among thousands of volunteers gathered across four states and the District for the 21st Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup. Young set out with a plastic bag and gloves to help clean up Rock Creek, and in the process found an orange golf ball and a seashell to keep as a souvenir.

"But it's mostly plastic and bottles," Young said. "I think people are really not nice to the environment."

The annual watershed cleanup stretches from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and hundreds of people gathered in Montgomery County to help pick up trash in Rock Creek portion of the Potomac Watershed. The effort is sponsored by the Alice Ferguson Foundation, a Maryland nonprofit dedicated to preservation of the Potomac River Watershed. Locally, Friends of Rock Creek's Environment, a nonprofit that looks out for Rock Creek and its 82-square mile watershed, hosted hundreds of local sites in partnership with the Alice Ferguson Foundation.

Charlie Andrews of Garrett Park, who organized volunteers along Beach Drive in Kensington, said about 100 volunteers came to help with that site. Andrews, a member of Friends of Rock Creek's Environment, said he has seen an improvement locally over the five years he has helped with the event.

"It's amazing how much less trash there is each year," Andrews said. "The first year I did this we took out like, 60 tires, last year it was down to 20 or 30 and I haven't seen any this year."

Jim Heins, the volunteer coordinator for the C&O Canal Association which organized cleanup of nine sites between Georgetown and Potomac, said the volunteer effort was especially good this year.

"For whatever reason — the economy, out-of-work, bored, greening of America — for whatever reason we had a lot of enthusiasm this year," Heins said.

Heins said there were several unusual items found, including an iPod, a Blackberry and television remotes. Most of it, however, was the same old same old: recyclable trash.

"Of the 260 (bags collected), approximately 115 were recycled," Heins said. "We make a big deal of it."

Ed Fisher, who is from Silver Spring and teaches at Garrett Park Elementary School, said the school promoted the event. He was impressed at the number of students that turned out in spite of Saturday being their first day of spring break. Several teachers from the school showed up to pick up trash.

"It's one way for the kids to see their teachers care too and hopefully make lifelong environmentalists and ecologists," Fisher said.

Andrew Brown, formerly of Silver Spring, came out the event with his son A.J., 8, to give back to the area they spent so much time in before recently moving to Baltimore.

For A.J., the effort was homework from his gym teacher, and though he confessed he didn't "like the water and all the dirt," he found a sun-bleached turtle shell that made it worthwhile.

"We biked this path for while, and took long walks and saw trash and I thought it would be good to clean it," Brown said. "I hope this makes it a better place."

Tons of trash

According to estimates from one-third of the reporting Potomac River Watershed Cleanup 2009 sites through Maryland, D.C., Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, volunteers gathered:

85 tons of trash

87,000 recyclable beverage containers

16,284 plastic bags

54 tires

14,690 cigarette butts

1 Great Falls Novelty Ice Cream Freezer

20 feet of highway guardrail

1 skateboard ramp

1 iPod

1 Blackberry