Because highly developed areas (like Fairfax) have lots of impervious surfaces (such as parking lots, roads, and driveways), and lots of trash, trash ends up being washed downstream into various bodies of water after rainstorms (since the water runs straight down the impervious surfaces at high speed). There are both advantages and disadvantages of this. Clearly the trash shouldn't be there in the first place, but frequently these bodies of water allow the garbage to be collected before it flows further into the watershed (the Chesapeake Bay) or into the sea. These animals are taking advantage of the structure that the garbage provides as a habitat source.
This is a painted turtle on a log. Nearby are plastic water bottles (honestly, with all the extremely attractive reusable water bottles, why are we still buying these? plus, tap water in the United States is usually perfectly fine), flipflops, tennis balls, and a crazy amount of styrofoam.
Another painted turtle. They're pretty resilient.
Apparently tennis balls make good seed starters.
Isn't he cute? This snapper was in a much cleaner stream close to the lake above.
This is a painted turtle on a log. Nearby are plastic water bottles (honestly, with all the extremely attractive reusable water bottles, why are we still buying these? plus, tap water in the United States is usually perfectly fine), flipflops, tennis balls, and a crazy amount of styrofoam.
Another painted turtle. They're pretty resilient.
Apparently tennis balls make good seed starters.
Isn't he cute? This snapper was in a much cleaner stream close to the lake above.
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