Friends of Sligo Creek chose to celebrate Earth Day, April 18, with it's semi annual "Sweep the Creek." Volunteers are given plastic bags and gloves and turned loose to collect trash. Every year more people turn out, and become astounded by the piles of trash. But that wasn't the case in the year 2000. 

That spring, Sally Gagne, who on the edge of Sligo Creek Park in North Sligo Hills, noted with alarm the increasing invasion of exotic plants into Sligo Creek. Looking for someone to listen, she found a sympathetic ear in John Galli, then chief engineer for the Council of Governments (a collective of all the municipal bodies).