Judy Sullivan shares passion for keeping Martin Road clean

Published on November 25, 2024

Some words that describe Judy Sullivan: Diligent, devoted, determined.

As a Green Team volunteer combating litter, Sullivan has adopted the more than two-mile stretch of Martin Road East between Memorial Parkway and Redstone Arsenal Gate 1, pouring her passion for cleanliness into keeping that relatively remote stretch of roadway litter free.

"My husband is a retired Alabama Power engineer," she said. "And the Gadsden office enacted Renew Our Rivers, which has now become a nationwide cleanup of rivers. So that's how I first got interested in waterway cleanliness. We were participating in kayaks, going and getting the trash out of the rivers."

Sullivan, a former school bus driver who has been living in Huntsville for a little more than a year, now focuses on cleanups of the wetlands along Martin Road, regularly climbing up and down the steep banks off the road's shoulders. And no matter how small a piece of litter may appear, Sullivan refuses to leave it.

"My motivation is to keep that Styrofoam out of the wetlands," she said. "Those tiny little divots of Styrofoam look a lot like fish eggs and so they're going to get picked up by guppies, shad or minnows and they might die. They get enough trash in their system, and it gets into the food chain.

"I'm very detail oriented. If it's one tiny little nib of Styrofoam that's the size of a raindrop, if I see it, I'm going to pick it up."

In addition to the wetlands, Sullivan climbs up and down the steep banks on both sides of Martin Road to bag whatever has been discarded. She said litter has declined on Martin Road, an indication that people have noticed her work and make an extra effort to help by making sure they don't add to her workload. That gives Sullivan a lot of gratification.

And then there are the hidden joys.

"I've seen wildlife that's just astounding," Sullivan said. "I've seen muskrats. There are so many different birds, herons, red-winged black birds. The Blue Jays used to be very territorial and give off their intruder alert sounds until about August. They no longer had babies up there. Now they give me a greeting chirp and follow along where I am, and they just kind of talk to me while I'm going. They're very sociable animals, and so I enjoy having the interaction with the wildlife.

"There's a skunk that lives in those tunnels. I don't want any interaction with the skunk in the tunnels. That skunk usually lets me know, 'OK, I'm here today. Don't come any closer.' And I say, 'Well, we'll just pick that up next week.'"

If you would like to get involved as a volunteer, Green Team makes it easy. For litter cleanups, Green Team will provide all the equipment you need and will dispose of the bags that are collected. For more information, email [email protected].