Below are some examples of what people have done
Have fun, get inspired by the stories and photos below, and go out there and make a difference for our coast and ocean!
(Ted was the winner of our recent contest, with his story of caring for Liscom Slough in Humboldt County. Ted will receive a framed Coastal Cleanup Day poster along with other prizes from the Coastal Commission.)
For more ideas on how you can protect the coast, check out these programs:
Quick Links to Steward Stories: (in the order they were received)
Kim from Seal Beach: Save Our Beach (a non profit 501c3 organization) governed by the “Board of Directors” in Seal Beach has been conducting beach cleanups and riverbed cleanups now for seven years and the city of Seal Beach has graciously provided parking passes for all of our participants as well as been very helpful in the entire process. Our mission is to make Seal Beach the cleanest beach in California and improve our water quality. Our intent has always been to improve education for everyone in Southern California through both the experience at our cleanups and the curriculum I've been taking to schools about the affect that urban runoff has on all of our lives and the quality of water as a result, and changing our habits to help reduce, reuse and recycle.
We also started doing some recycling at each beach cleanup—
Our first beach cleanup was 10/28/2000 and was part of the national "Make A Difference" day and we had 428 people show up, consisting of residents, business owners, police dept, US Navy and Marines, fire dept, lifeguards, boyscouts, girlscouts, churches, CALPIRG, UCLA, UCLB, UC Irvine, Glendale Community College, Build Up LA, CA Dept of Conservation and First Lady Sharon Davis. It was at Make A Difference Day that I announced I would be starting a beach cleanup once a month and since then we have had over 20,000 participants. View a slideshow of images from our cleanups.
Ryder from San Francisco: First published in An Ocean Beach Diary (excerpted) On Thursday, December 28, 2006, local birders as part of the annual Audubon Society Christmas Day Bird Count scoured San Francisco and the nearby area looking for all the birds they can find in the city environs. The annual counts are usually not scientific enough to be considered publishable in academic journals, but the count allows local birders to follow local trends and issues, especially the environmentally worrisome ones. In the past hunters would go out at Christmas time to hunt for birds. The annual Audubon Day Christmas Bird Count, more than one hundred years old, was initiated to counteract the harm bird populations suffered before the turn of the last century. Some birds had gone extinct, including the Passenger Pigeon, which once flew in flocks so large that they could block out the entire sky. Dan Murphy, Sunset District resident and compiler of Audubon Christmas Day Bird Count, shared the results they found about the West side of the city. This year there was excellent weather, but the birders also go out in the rain and the wind. One hundred and two birders participated this year which is not a lot in a city of over 700,000.The preliminary results indicated that 169 bird species were observed in the city this year, which is on the high end of the normal variation. Focusing mostly on the West Side of the city: Along the coast there were high numbers of Red-throated Loons, but low numbers of Pacific and Common Loons. Surf Scoters and other shorebirds were disbursed by the winds of the previous day. Forty six Western Snowy Plovers were observed on Ocean Beach, which Murphy said was a high, possibly due to more dog walkers obeying the National Park Service leash laws. Murphy complained that there are still dogs that chase birds along Ocean Beach. On the day of the count dogs were observed chasing flocks of Snowy Plovers along Ocean Beach. Murphy also points out that there is not a uniformed Park Service presence to enforce the regulations put in place to protect the Western Snowy Plover. Also to be seen on Ocean Beach during the length of the year are Sanderlings, Willets, Godwits, Curlews, Whimbrels, Gulls, Terns, Brown Pelicans, Bank Swallows, Ravens and others. Construction at the zoo resulted in less birds to be seen this year. Common birds like the Spotted Towhee and the Bewick's Wren were observed in low numbers, the cause: urbanization. Also vulnerable to extirpation (local disappearance ) are the California Quail, San Francisco's official bird, which were not seen in the Strybing Arboretum. Only a flock of six were observed in the Presidio. The Screech Owl and the Wrentit are believed to be extirpated from the city... The take home message: protect San Francisco's natural areas for the birds as well yourselves. One can always pitch in by helping the Audubon Society or other environmental groups. Birds are symbols of freedom, which some appreciate and others are envious of. They are also indicator species whose success and problems indicate the health of the environment. With a diversity of habitats, San Francisco has a diverse assemblage of bird life. To be thanked: the birders who sing out their appreciation for our avian friends and our natural environment.
Kathleen from Oxnard: (excerpted) In 2007 I initiated some 17 bird rescues...[What follows are a couple that are] most memorable for me. I was walking along Oxnard-Shores beach with my German shorthaired pointer, Montana, when I got to the Mandalay generating station. The water was rough as it often is in the winter months and it was an incoming tide. I noted...there was a pelican fighting to stay above the waves. It was hard to imagine a pelican struggling like this unless it was being held down somehow. I got Montana tied up a distance away and waded out to investigate and found something was holding the pelican to the rocks...I had no knife, it was still dark and the water was very rough and cold. The tide was coming in and I was, well OK...afraid to go in...I ran back home to call animal control. It was too early to get anyone, so I made several calls and finally found someone who would come out and help. I feared the incoming tide would eventually drown the bird. He had to be exhausted...and I had no idea how long he had been in this position...I ran back with a knife (I am a good runner) and dove in and cut off the fishing line that was wrapped around his legs and wing holding him to the rocks. I was able to drag the bird toward me and hold him to my body for some warmth until another more experienced rehabber showed up. It was freezing! His eyes were still blue so I assumed he/she was very young...He looked right at me. From this point the juvenile brown pelican was transported to holding where he was warmed with heating pads and given liquids. He was then transported to Ms. June Taylor's bird sanctuary in Santa Barbara for rehab...then by someone else to San Pedro for holding and to determine if and when he could be released. I found out months later that he was successfully rehabbed and released. There are many who do this type of work...Rarely are they given the thanks or even their existence noted other than by those who work with them. There must have been at least six...people involved in rescuing this one pelican. Taking time and making long drives from Oxnard to Ventura to Santa Barbara and on to San Pedro for a single pelican is worth some gratitude... The duckling rescue was one for the books and I wish a photographer from National Geographic was there because it is amazing. Again Montana and I are doing our beach walk, often before dawn...Montana being the bird dog she is is off sniffing anything and everything. I look down at the waters edge and see Montana crouched down in play mode backing up from a moving body, a rat, a bird?...Then I see it, something I just can't believe. A brood of six baby ducklings are imprinting on Montana! Here a 70 pound German shorthaired pointer...crouched down in fear of these six peeping, yellow billed, balls of feathers walking all over her paws and following her every movement. She tries to escape and they keep coming...I called her to come and she behaved and right on her heels, much to her distaste, are these waddling little pieces of fluff and feathers. It was sight to see. I had no idea what to do. There were no adults to be located. And I am sensitive enough to my surroundings to note any adult ducks flying off prior to our arrival. And they would not be left, they followed Montana. I manage to collect all six ducklings into my shell jacket...Again, not an easy task as they were popping out all over and now Montana was becoming more curious than afraid. So I am handling the dog on leash and attempting to hold six squirming, squiggling, peeping ducklings safely without crushing them. I walked at least a mile like this...I finally decide to stop at the power plant and find a box or get some help. Here I am wet, disheveled, walking in with an arm full of something moving and the guys quip, 'what you got there'? I tell them about the ducks and ask for a box. They are all giggles and they say sure as long as you can help us with this pelican, pointing to a very seriously injured pelican. From here, I again run home with Montana to make the calls, and come back in my car to pick up the ducks. This is when I learn people are skilled at rehabbing only specific species. I picked up the ducks and continued the calls. No one would take them. I tried Fish and wildlife and finally found someone from the Parks Service that would take the pelican that later died. I did locate a Harbor Patrol officer who performed duck rescues -- unbelievable! I delivered them to Harbor Patrol and after much pestering found they were all healthy and eventally released. I will never forget the sight of those tiny ducklings following after a bird dog that was doing her best to get away from them. The look of shock and wide open, whites of the eyes showing was truly hilarious.
Howard from Santa Ana: Here is a picture of myself at the 2007 Children’s Education Water Festival in Irvine. We play a game with the kids teaching them about household hazardous waste, and the difference between storm drains and the sewer.
Louisa from Albion: Seaside Beach...is about ten miles north of Fort Bragg on the Mendocino County coast in Northern California. I just started working with the Coastal Land Trust, which owns and manages Seaside Beach, this June 2007. We have been hosting monthly workdays to clean up trash on the beach and remove invasive plant species. There is a small subdivision on the bluff just south of Seaside Beach, called Ocean Meadows. This subdivision is the source of most of our Seaside Stewards, who take care of Seaside Beach without any expectation of money or glory. Two in particular, Jim Havlena and Elsie Wallin, walk Seaside Beach every morning and pick up trash and recyclables. Elsie Wallin has been making this walk and picking up trash here almost every day for twenty years. These people are some of my heroes! Seaside Beach is one of the few beaches in Mendocino County which is easily accessible from Highway One. People literally pour out of their cars, trucks, motor homes, all manner of vehicles, to use this beach. There is a seasonal outhouse near the road which makes the stop even more imperative for some. There is no trash pick up, however, and not all users are conscientious about removing their litter, etc. from the site... Every time I go to this beach I meet remarkable people, in addition to the volunteers that grace our Stewards events. About two weeks ago, I talked with a man whose wife had died of cancer the day before; he came to Seaside Beach for solace and to throw a stick for his dog. I also spoke with a man whose partner of 35 years had recently died after struggling with cancer, to whom this beach is an inspiration and a source of healing. On the same day that we collected the bags of garbage you see in the photograph, we met a woman from Calgary, Canada, who was traveling up the west coast of North America with her family. She had been disturbed by the amounts of trash she had seen in her travels, and was inspired by our efforts. She even pitched in and collected a bag of trash herself, and left with a smile on her face at having met our little group of mighty volunteers. Coastal Land Trust is grateful to the State Coastal Conservancy for funding both (1) the acquisition of the Seaside Meadow property (an adjacent wetland area east of Highway One) and (2) our current efforts, which include planning, permitting, invasives removal, restoration, operation and maintenance over a 1-2 year period. Let's hope our efforts will catch on, and soon there will be a majority of people who pick up, rather than leave behind, and give back more than we receive from our special and fragile coast.
Viviana from Lawndale: For the past four years, over 400 students at Environmental Charter High School (ECHS) have participated in the Plastics are Forever project. A grant from Captain Planet helped to launch the project, and now ECHS aims to further its impact by disseminating this project to other schools and organizations. In collaboration with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), ECHS students have studied in-depth the environmental effects of plastics in the marine environment and have assisted the research and advocacy efforts of AMRF. The ECHS 9th grade students conduct sand sampling at a local beach to measure the quantity and types of plastics found in sand on the beach. This data is shared with AMRF, as part of a long-term longitudinal study of plastics in the ocean and beaches along the southern California coast. As 10th graders, ECHS students deepen their study of plastics by analyzing the effects of plastics in the Pacific Ocean by dissecting the bolouses of albatross found on Midway Island. The albatross are endangered due in part to the large quantities of plastics they consume, mistaking it for plankton. As 11th graders, ECHS students worked with Dr. Eriksen from AMRF to build a boat made entirely of discarded plastics. Dr. Eriksen sailed the boat 300 miles along the southern California coast, making stops along the way to educate students and the general public about the environmental problems caused by plastics, which never biodegrade. As seniors, ECHS students monitor three watersheds in Los Angeles for plastics: Ballona, San Gabriel, and the Los Angeles River Basin. The work of ECHS students at the Ballona Wetlands, documenting waste plastics in the environment, was included in an Algalita research paper which is being used in efforts to educate the Long Beach City Council on the impact of plastics in the environment and to promote a ban on plastics. The Plastics are Forever project at ECHS has created students who are independent thinkers, consciousness citizens and stewards of their communities. We hope we can continue to share the wealth of knowledge to youth locally and globally so that they too can take a part in saving out planet.
June from Lawndale: My idea for conserving water is to catch the first gallon or two of water while waiting for the warm water to come from the tap in the shower or tub. I use the water to water my plants inside and out. Also, the washing machine can always use a few gallons of water for the next wash.
Ted from Eureka (excerpted): Liscom slough is a tributary of Humboldt Bay. The coastal trail crosses Liscom slough on Jackson Ranch Road. At fifty years of age, I was in search of a comfortable bike ride that would allow me to get daily exercise and provide me with a feeling of getting away from the stresses of daily life. Little did I know what I would see when I looked off the bridge on Jackson Ranch Road and into Liscom slough. There below was a mass of auto parts of every description, bags of animal parts too numerous to mention, pay phones and newspaper vending machines, along with a variety of everything from ammunition to costume jewelry. Three vehicles that had been driven into the slough were also evident. The slough over time had become toxic from the incredible diversity of discarded objects. It was not uncommon to find ten auto batteries at a time dumped in the slough. Once, when driving by, I noticed a cooler of methamphetamine chemicals floating next to shore. It was very common to find fifty gallon garbage cans of marijuana shake going in and out with the tide. Other times it would be tires on rims or computer monitors floating just at water surface level. All of these items, if not retrieved, would enter the bay with the outgoing tide. Some unusual things that I found: a bowling ball and pins, a parachute, a semi truck bumper, sex toys, and an envelope with $1000 cash. Liscom slough is drainage for agricultural lands...It eventually terminates in the Mad River slough near the Sierra Pacific mill. The upper reaches are home to many amphibians and migratory waterfowl that rely on this ecosystem for food and shelter. When the slough becomes an estuary, it becomes a nursery for many aquatic organisms. I have observed as many as 1500 juvenile crabs pass under the bridge in one hour at low tide during the summer months. Juvenile smelt, herring, and anchovies can be seen in large numbers swimming through the eel grass under the bridge. Also, if one looks closely, they will see sponges of several varieties and oysters. The bat rays that live in the bay swim up the slough with the tide to eat mollusks and crustaceans. I'm getting a little ahead of my story. I decided to slowly remove whatever garbage and junk I could from the slough over a period of almost ten years. First the cars were sledge hammered apart and hauled off in my small Toyota pickup. Todd Van Herpe, owner of the Humboldt Bay Oyster Company, put on his waders and helped clean the channel of debris. If only more individuals that benefit from the natural resources that Humboldt Bay provides were responsible stewards the way Todd is, then the bay would be far better off...Slowly a coalition of concerned agencies under the guidance of the Humboldt Baykeeper...took action. Three no dumping signs were installed, notifying the public of their increased responsibility to do the right thing and not the easy thing. Human nature being what it is, the occasional relapse will occur but improvement has been made for the slough. Eel grass beds have returned, and a greater variety of bird life has been observed. If you're looking for a wonderful place to kayak, bird watch, paint, bike, run, or walk, Liscom slough will not disappoint. It is a beautiful place that is worthy of a better fate.
Marsha from La Jolla: A class of 64 high school students in San Diego researched, wrote, photographed, and designed a book: San Diego Bay: A Story of Exploitation and Restoration. In the process, they learned a lot about stewardship of our coastal resources. While there were 64 students who contributed to the book, two of them served as editors-in-chief and did the yeoman's share of the work: Natalie...and Gwen... For more details, please see an article by The San Diego Log newspaper about the new book. Also, the teacher behind this "hands-on" learning project, Dr. Jay Vavra, was recently awarded Amgen's Teaching Excellence award. There is a 3-minute video produced by Amgen. See the 4th item under "NEWS" – Amgen Video Profile: Dr. Vavra.
Ray from Lake Arrowhead: A Lobbyist for Nature (exerpted) Fifty-three years ago, my biology professor at Fullerton Junior College told me I ought to start getting interested in birds if I were going into game management work so he sent me to Back Bay Newport. As one result, I took a few Kodachrome slides which are now among the oldest colored illustrations we have of the bay. In 1969, I took a class at UCI dealing with Orange County environmental problems. Groups of three students were asked to select a problem in the county on which to report. My group chose Back Bay and was told by the professor that it was "a lost cause" so we should choose another issue, but we all argued to be allowed to do it anyway and he relented. Thus, I went on my first Back Bay Tour and saw the few fishes being shown at the fish exhibit and I thought, "I have more bay fishes than that." So I talked to the volunteers at the top of the hill and asked if I could become involved. I was invited to a Board meeting of Friends of Newport Bay and arrived with some ideas the Board liked. I was elected to the Board in 1970 and spent a total of thirteen years as a Board member and was President for three years beginning in 1973. With the future of Back Bay being set by Appellate Court decision in early 1973, the various public agencies we had fought suddenly asked, "Okay, you've won, what do you want?" After so many years of saying what we didn't want, it was a challenge to turn that around. About a dozen of us led by Frank and Frances Robinson put in many hours during the summer of 1973, preparing a plan for a "park preserve." Frank indicated early that he could not present the plan to the powers that be. Since I was an "unknown" to the politicos (I hadn't made any enemies yet) and was the new President of the Friends, Frank asked me to present our detailed plan for the bay. To be openly given Frank's unequivocal trust, and by someone for whom I have deep respect, means more to me than words can ever say. The unveiling of our plan took place in Santa Ana at a public meeting of the Recreation Subcommittee of the U.S. Department of the Interior Upper Newport Bay Field Committee. Our persistence had caused the federal government to consider the bay as a possible wildlife preserve...I talked for an hour and a half during which I used numerous illustrations of the plan that had taken a summer to develop. The presentation was so successful, I was asked to do it again for the full Department of the Interior Field Committee in San Francisco, did so, and then was invited to become a permanent member of the committee. Finally, the Friends were getting recognized! Some twenty-five years later, I commented to U.S. Representative Christopher Cox, at a Shellmaker Island celebration of getting dredging moneys for the bay, that most of our our plan has now been implemented... (T)he politics of Back Bay were never to go back. No matter who was in office, the public had been convinced and the bay was to remain protected from development... The Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve is now over thirty years old. What we are presently engaged in is long-term planning to protect nature in a special place. We need to remember that long-term to elected officials is the length of the term of office. In my mind and heart, long-term is defined as -- forever.
Doug from Agoura Hills: As an avid Scuba Diver, I'm always on the lookout for anything that can harm my underwater friends. During a dive at Point Dume, Malibu, my dive buddy and I discovered an abandoned Lobster trap that had broken loose from its floating buoy so it could not be retrieved by the commercial fisherman that had placed it there. Inside the trap were at least one dozen Spiny Lobsters that had been trapped for who knows how long. Unable to forage for food, these Lobsters were doomed to a slow death by starvation, but to our relief, they were still alive. We pried the door of the trap open and released the Lobsters, who immediately swam into the nearby kelp forest where I'm sure they had quite a feast. Every Lobster season hundreds of Commercial Lobster traps can be found up and down the Malibu coastline where I do most of my Scuba diving. They can be identified by their colorful retrieval buoys floating on the surface. Unfortunately, winter storms cause many of the traps to break away from the floating buoys, which turns them into lobster death traps. Every year my dive buddies and I find several of these abandoned traps and disable them by removing the doors, so that Lobster and other marine life can no longer be trapped only to suffer a slow and certain death. This is just one of the many things we as divers can do to ensure that the incredibly diverse marine environment that we enjoy can be preserved for future generations.
Marni from Los Angeles: Beach Cleanup On April 27, 2007 my class and some of the other six grade class went to Zuma beach to pick up all the trash. The other half of the six grade classes went to the Los Angles River and cleaned it all up too. When we got off the long bus ride because there was traffic and when we were trying to go under a tunnel we couldn't because the bus was too tall and would of hit the top of the tunnel so we had to find a way to back up and it took us a long time. At Zuma beach we all got into groups of four people. When everyone was all done choosing the people that they wanted to pick up trash with, the groups each got a bag for recycling, a bag for any other kind of trash, and a list with different kinds of items you may find while picking up trash. Every time you found one of the items on the list you would mark a tally on the card and at the end we would tally them all up. When it was lunch time we went on the beach everyone spread out their towels and sat with their friends and ate their lunches. When we were done with our lunches we had to make sure that we picked up all our trash and then we had about 15 minutes till it was time to get back on the buses and go back to school.
Susan from Berkeley: Sisyphus meets pepperweed This stewardship story has little drama and no ending – at least not yet. And the story is both short and long. Here it is: For eight years, Friends of Five Creeks, an all-volunteer watershed restoration group, has kept perennial pepperweed from expanding on the waterfront in Berkeley, Albany, and south Richmond, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium, also called tall whitetop) is an invasive pest plant throughout much of California. In the Bay-Delta Area it threatens especially salt marshes and tide flats. Pepperweed forms masses up to six feet high, where its dense mass of rhizomes let nothing else grow. This root mass also helps the plants expand out onto tideflats needed by wintering and migrant shorebirds. Pepperweed can spread rapidly and widely, due to the potent combination of this fast-spreading root mat, millions of seeds tiny seeds, and the fact that even a tiny piece of root can float in salt water for months and then drift ashore to start a new colony. In 2000, Friends of Five Creeks realized that pepperweed was flourishing near the mouth of Berkeley’s Strawberry Creek. We soon found other infestations – to the north and south in what is now Eastshore State Park, in Berkeley’s Aquatic Park, in Albany on lower Cerrito Creek, and here and there along the shoreline north of Pt. Isabel in Richmond. We’ve cut and dug pepperweed every spring and summer since. Hundreds of hours have been spent by volunteers including by students of all ages; helpers from other groups including the California Native Plant Society, Save the Bay, and Friends of Strawberry Creek; and Friends of Five Creeks stalwart Weekday Weed Warriors, who meet weekly at various restoration sites and share coffee and chat after working. Agencies have helped, too. The City of Berkeley contains upland spread by mowing. The East Bay Regional Park District has worked on outliers in years when we ran out of time. The University of California Berkeley and Aquatic Outreach Institute are containing pepperweed at UC’s Richmond Field Station, just north of “our” areas. Since this project started in 2000, Friends of Five Creeks volunteers have eliminated broom forests, blackberry jungles, cape-ivy carpets, fennel thickets, and more at a half dozen other restoration sites, leaving us with only light maintenance. But the best we can say of the pepperweed is that most patches seem to have shrunk. Work on the breezy waterfront is lovely, with shorebirds, terns, and egrets as company. But doing the same task over and over, year after year, is no fun! Real elimination will take removing shoreline rip-rap, digging down a couple of feet in large areas, or herbicide application by licensed professionals – work our volunteers can’t do. The shoreline became part of Eastshore State Park in 2002, and someday, we hope, agencies with the needed resources and authority will assume effective stewardship over the new park’s hodgepodge of weeds flourishing on former garbage landfill. In the meantime, our holding action continues.
Richard from Oakland: A true story from Lake Merritt, the nation's oldest wildlife refuge It was a little mallard; no more than a few days old. I had seen it swimming around earlier, nibbling at algae and keeping up with the drake and hen. But now it was stuck. Somehow the tip of its tiny webbed foot was caught against the shoreline. Mom and dad were there trying to help, and the little guy was yanking and yanking on the foot, but it would not come loose. Was it tangled in fishing line? Closer inspection revealed that it was caught inside a live mussel attached to the rock wall. Apparently this tiny duckling (no larger than a handful of down) had paddled up against the open mussel, which had instinctively snapped shut, trapping the tip of its toenail. What to do? What to do? Would the adult duck attack if I tried to help? If it remained caught, would its struggles attract a predatory gull or cormorant intent on lunch? Bending over and laying on the ground, I reached down and began to work the mussle loose. Mom stayed back and the little one struggled even more furiously. I soon had the mussel loose, but could not pick it up with the duckling attached. Prying it open did not work either, so I gently began pulling on the tiny webbed foot. A little tug; a little more, and it was free. Away swam the ball of feathers, shaking its head. It moved in a straight line, and did not seem to be in pain so I think it was OK. Plopping the mussel back in the water, I wondered what was going through its tiny duckling brain. A big part of me says that people are not supposed to interfere with wild animals; that nature should be allowed to take its course. But this time, the other side won out, and a duckling lived to swim another day.
Dan from Stockton: My coastal stewardship story begins with a group of inner city, Alternative High School students from Stockton, CA. The one. Alternative Program is part of the county operated schools and programs of the San Joaquin County Office of Education. This program is for students that for one reason or another have been unsuccessful at their traditional schools. The motto of our program, which we call the “concept of one.”, is: “one.” stands for our desire to remind students that each individual is important and can make a difference in the world; we also want to make the point that it is when individuals join together, and work as “one.” that miracles can occur. As the activities director for the one. Program, I plan one activity a month that will take these students out of their urban environment and expose them to other parts of California that they do not normally have an opportunity to see. Most of the activities are physically challenging so the students will feel a sense of accomplishment when they complete the task. One of the activities is an overnight camping trip, called the Honor Quest, for students who have been in our program a year or more. In 2006, I planned the Honor Quest to coincide with the coastal clean-up week. A group of teachers and staff took fifty students to Half Moon Bay for a daylong hike and competition along the beach, to see which group could collect the most garbage and debris. The four-mile trek started at Redondo Beach at the southern end of Half Moon Bay and ended at El Granada Beach to the north. Each group was equipped with a supply of garbage bags. The winning group of the competition would be determined by the total weight of the trash collected. The difficulty arose when the students realized that they would have to walk in sand most of the way carrying their collection of trash so it could be weighed. At the end of the day, the groups were exhausted, but the students had a feeling of great satisfaction about their effort to make this part of California beautiful. We collected over 300 pounds of garbage. The collection included tires, parts of fishing nets, and nylon rope. Around the campfire that night in the redwoods, we talked about our accomplishment and the realization that each of us as individuals could effect the environment, but all of us working together could really make a difference.
Jake from Cupertino wrote the following article for his congregation’s newsletter as a part of a Bar Mitzvah service project:
For my Bar-Mitzvah service project, I decided to clean up dirty beaches with a group of volunteers from our congregation in Palo Alto, California, to help make the world a cleaner place. Our congregation picked Francis Beach at Half Moon Bay State Beach, and we arrived on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. Everyone in our group got into picking up refuse on the beach, and we all ended up picking up at least one full bag of trash each. One person in our group picked up two. The results were great. We turned the place from pig-sty to paradise beach. Yet one thing that interested me was the different types of trash that had been found. We found bottles, cans, planks of wood with nails in it, styrophome, a holiday light, and many other bizarre items. Although these things may seem like common household items, you need to think about how they managed to land on or near the beach. For example, how do you think that a holiday light could simply be thrown out of a car window and make its way all the way to the beach? These thoughts can definitely open your eyes to the fact that litter doesn't just wander by itself out of cars or houses. People had to have helped get them there. The reasons that I chose to do this kind of activity for my Bar-Mitzvah service project is because of my love of nature. Cleaning beaches and waterways help nature in many ways, and it especially helps to save marine and animal life. Some of the marine life that I am trying to help by reducing litter and pollution are sea turtles, sea birds, and sea lions, and birds and mammals on the land need protection, too. Although some of these animals do not need our help yet, they all will soon need assistance if pollution isn't stopped. And this affects people too. After contaminating our own water supply, this inland pollution eventually reaches the ocean where, at least this time, we are able to retrieve a little bit of it. Also, I have cleaned beaches and riverbanks up because it just plain makes me feel good. When I see a dirty beach, I don't mourn, but I think of what I can do to help and I hope that it will be the same as it was before some “less enlightened” people messed it up. And when I clean up a messy beach and look back down to it, I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment when I see how much good I have done the world. I now would like to invite everyone reading this article to pick some litter up, and even if you only pick up a small piece of trash, you are still making a difference for the world.
Debbie (and Kelsey) from Lodi: When we were in Monterey...we had gone to the Aquarium the day before we cleaned the beach and learned a lot. We stayed for the penquin feeding and learned even more about the damage garbage does to sea life. Kelsey and I had stayed at the Monterey Bay Inn and we were heading to the [California Coastal Commission] meeting that afternoon regarding our permit so we went to the beach to play and ended up cleaning the whole beach up! She did a really great job and it was fun too! Kelsey actually wanted to bring the garbage to the meeting to give to you guys to show you what she had gathered because she was so excited...
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