A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 17, 2007
3. Watersheds
A trickle of water might save estuary; Conservationists believe a small but immediate step could renew the Colorado River Delta - Los Angeles Times
DELTA ISSUES:
Low summer tides leave Delta stuck in the muck; Resident blames rock barrier called crucial for farmers - Stockton Record
Algae outbreak in delta potentially hazardous to people, pets - Associated Press
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Mussel in canal creates worries for CAP and lake - Arizona Republic
Lake Davis pike to be buried in Reno area - Reno Gazette Journal
COASTAL CLEANUP PROJECTS:
Coastal cleanup event expands inland; 'We can't separate the inland from the beach. It's all one system,' said one coordinator during the event - Los Angeles Times
Thousands of volunteers help clean waterways, shore; County coastal cleanup campaign yields tons of garbage, recyclables - Ventura County Star
COASTAL CLEANUP DAY; Volunteers hit beaches to clear out the trash - San Francisco Chronicle
Thousands of Volunteers Help Clean California
Volunteers wade into summer litter on river parkway - Sacramento Bee
Residents help revitalize the Yuba - Grass Valley Union
Napans volunteer in clean up along local waterways - Napa Valley Register
Volunteers spruce creek - Woodland Daily Democrat
A trickle of water might save estuary; Conservationists believe a small but immediate step could renew the Colorado River Delta
By Frank Clifford, special to the Times
The Colorado River Delta was once a watery labyrinth of willow thickets, mesquite and cottonwood, bigger than the state of
About 90% of the delta's wetlands and natural habitat dried up over the last half century, as water from the
For more than a decade, conservation groups in the
In its forthcoming analysis of the delta, the nonprofit
Under the institute's plan, the delta would get about three-tenths of a percent of the river's historic annual flow, making it one of the more modest claims on a river that serves 30 million people. But even that amount could be a hard sell.
Eight years of drought in the
The river's annual flow has fallen as low as 25% of normal since 2000, and some scientists have predicted that with the growing influence of climate change, flows will average 50% to 60% of normal over the next 50 years.
Later this year, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is expected to announce the first-ever guidelines for managing reduced water deliveries from the
As the government draws up plans for dealing with a reduced water supply, environmentalists believe restoration must be made a priority or the delta will be doomed.
"If we fail right now, we might really fail, as the shortage becomes a reality and discussions about saving water for conservation become a lot harder," said Jennifer Pitt, a policy analyst with the group Environmental Defense, which works closely with the Sonoran Institute.
Advocates for the delta have little legal leverage.
Neither the 1944 treaty that allocates Colorado River water to
But the Sonoran Institute contends that there is still nearly enough unclaimed water in the river to revive the delta without impinging on any existing rights on either side of the border.
"What we are talking about is the slop, leakage and waste discharges, " said Peter Culp, a lawyer who represents the institute. It's the water that slips past
For 30 years, the crown jewel of the delta's remaining wetlands, the 40,000-acre Cienega de
The problem with such releases, however, is that they can't be counted on forever and don't always occur when nature needs them. To ensure timely flows, the institute has proposed amending the 1944 treaty to allow
"There are significant human benefits to the proposal," said Mark Lellouch, one of its authors. About 200,000 people live in scattered communities in the delta, Lellouch said, and restoration would provide more sustenance and more jobs.
Even now, nature tourism is a going concern. Visitors from the
"There are a number of stakeholders in
"If there's enough will, you can make anything happen," he said. "But it's an uphill battle." #
DELTA ISSUES:
Low summer tides leave Delta stuck in the muck; Resident blames rock barrier called crucial for farmers
By Alex Breitler, staff writer
But at low tide, the retired waste hauler sometimes finds his moored boats - Party Barge and Bass Buggy - afloat on mud and ooze instead of water.
In the three decades since he moved here, sediment gradually has accumulated and filled in a good portion of the channel, Munoz said.
"If you'd step in that right now, you'd sink up to your waist," he said, gesturing off his deck toward the exposed river bottom.
Sediment in the Delta is to be expected. As the
Much of that material is deposited in the Delta. As a result, some channels are up to 8 feet shallower than they were a half-century ago, said Alex Hildebrand, a
Munoz, however, blames a human-made feature for his problem: a temporary barrier installed on the
The rock barrier, about a quarter-mile east of Munoz's home, slows the westward flow of the water during the summer, keeping water levels higher on the east side for farmers.
That slower flow, however, allows sediment to sink to the bottom, said Munoz, who wants the river dredged.
Endangered Species Act requirements and permits needed from federal agencies have made dredging difficult and costly in the past 30 years, said Paul Marshall, south Delta branch manager for the state Department of Water Resources.
The state already has dredged portions of the
"Everyone assumes that because we've done some work in the past, that we ought to do all of the work,"
The barrier to which Munoz objects probably is not adding sediment to the area,
Hildebrand said the south Delta needs a system for removing sediment and deepening channels.
"Nobody has been given the responsibility for doing it," he said.
But the barrier to which Munoz objects is crucial to keep water levels high enough that farmers can reach the river with their pumps, Hildebrand said.
"If we didn't have the barriers, we'd go dry," he said. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/A_NEWS/709160329/-1/A_NEWS
Algae outbreak in delta potentially hazardous to people, pets
Associated Press – 9/14/07
Tests in the west delta in late August showed there was an algae bloom intense enough to severe rashes, gastrointestinal problems and potentially long-term complications in people, and the death of pets that may drink the water or lick their fur, health officials said.
Although algae blooms are common in the delta during the summer, "this was a particularly bad year," said Peggy Lehman of the state Department of Water Resources.
One test showed the amount of algae cells per millimeter of water near
"If we get further indication from the state that it is important for us to post, then we can do that" said Sherman Quinlan, head of
But windsurfers and others who felt they'd been unnecessarily exposed to a risk wondered why more wasn't done to alert the public.
"It just seems odd. Is this something new, or has it been there and nobody mentioned it before?" said Steve Smith, who heads the Rio Vista Windsurfing Association. #
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_6896096
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Mussel in canal creates worries for CAP and lake
By Shaun McKinnon, staff writer
The quagga mussel invasion has reached the Valley.
An adult mussel turned up in the
Just a single quagga was found in the canal, east of a bridge near
"Where there is one, there are bound to be others."
Quagga mussels pose no health risk to the drinking-water supply, but they multiply quickly and can clog pipes, pumps and other equipment. In lakes and reservoirs, the mollusks can rob other aquatic life of food and oxygen, disrupting entire ecosystems.
There is no known way to safely eradicate a quagga infestation.
CAP officials say the mussels have not caused any maintenance problems in the system and, until last month, no quagga had been detected beyond the canal's starting point at
"We're trying to find out if they're spreading and, if so, how far," CAP spokesman Bob Barrett said Friday. "This is one. It's an indication they're there and surviving. We don't know yet how bad this is."
Authorities have struggled to contain the mollusk invasion to the reservoirs on the lower
Riley said biologists can only guess how the mussel made it to
The 336-mile
Quagga larvae were discovered last month outside
Finding a quagga this far from the
"We have not detected them in other locations, but they seem to be moving," Riley said. "When they find the right place and the right habitat they can settle in, they begin to grow. As the numbers of adult mussels increase, they will reproduce in that location and send babies farther downstream."
Biologists don't know if the quagga could establish colonies in the
But they love lakes, and the
"We haven't observed any adult mussels in
Quagga populations grow almost exponentially. A single adult mussel can produce 30,000 to 40,000 fertilized eggs in one breeding cycle; one female quagga can release up to 1 million eggs in a year.
Once established, the mussels filter phytoplankton and other food from the water, disrupting the natural food chain. The mollusk waste accumulates in the bottom of the lake and changes the water's chemistry. Over time, the feeding process can strip parts of a lake of its oxygen supply.
The quagga, an inedible shellfish, is native to
Just as the first quagga was found at Lake Mead as part of a search for zebra mussels, the
CAP workers had earlier found quagga mussels at the canal's main intake at
Crews have inspected equipment at the Bouse Hills, Little Harquahala and Hassayampa pumping stations west of the Valley, but no mussels were found.
Jackrabbit Siphon, about 45 miles west of
Mussels infested the first few miles of the Colorado River Aqueduct, the canal on the
The CAP's Barrett said
"They will not be allowed to accumulate to the point where they would interrupt our deliveries," he added.
Authorities in
"One of the things we don't want to happen is for folks to say, 'They're already there, why worry'," biologist Riley said. "We don't want folks to give up on the idea that maybe we can limit where these things go by taking a few simple steps. We really have to rely on folks saying, 'I'm going to do my part to try to protect our waters.' " #
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0915quagga0915.html
By Jeff DeLong, staff writer
The poisoning of a vast population of northern pike is under way at a popular Sierra lake, with most of the soon-to-be-deceased fish destined to come to the
Pike killed during the California Department of Fish and Game's eradication project will be trucked to the Lockwood landfill, double-bagged and promptly buried, said Tracie Douglas of Washoe County Environmental Health Services. She expects up to hundreds of thousands of dead fish.
"The landfill will be ready for them,"
Recurring problem
Pike were discovered in
The latest effort, costing up to $16 million, began Sept. 10 when teams of state workers began applying liquid rotenone to streams around the lake.
"It's everything from little pools of water to the major streams, but there's pike in all of them," Steve Martanaro, fish and game spokesman, said.
Little effect so far
Relatively few pike have been killed, and most that bob to the surface are being snatched up at night by raccoons, coyotes and other critters, Martanaro said. About 100 pike had been picked up as of Friday.
But when poisoning of the lake starts Sept. 25, the death toll will be much higher. Ivan Paulson, a senior state biologist based in nearby Portola, said hundreds of thousands of pike might be swimming in the lake's waters. The poisoning also will kill surviving trout and some other types of fish.
Workers will gather dead fish and load them into garbage trucks to be hauled to the Lockwood landfill, Martanaro said.
Bill Carr, district manager for Waste Management Inc., said the loads of dead fish won't pose any particular challenge at the landfill, which regularly receives food products for disposal.
"They're used to that kind of weird stuff," she said. #
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070917/NEWS/709170345/1321
COASTAL CLEANUP PROJECTS:
Coastal cleanup event expands inland; 'We can't separate the inland from the beach. It's all one system,' said one coordinator during the event
By Rong-Gong Lin II, staff writer
An army of volunteers hunting for litter across
The effort was part of California Coastal Cleanup Day, held annually since 1985. But the cleanup doesn't happen just at the beach anymore: Officials expanded efforts inland.
Most of the trash that piles up on the shoreline comes from inland storm drains, which during the rainy season carry the litter to creeks, rivers and ultimately the
"We can't separate the inland from the beach. It's all one system," said Eveline Bravo, the Coastal Cleanup Day manager for Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental group based in Santa Monica that coordinated about 70 cleanup events Saturday in Los Angeles County.
"It's like getting to the root of the problem," Bravo said.
In the San Fernando Valley community of
They combed sidewalks and street gutters, scooping up empty tissue boxes, Popsicle sticks, empty single-serving cereal boxes, flattened fruit drink wrappers, torn candy wrappers and unused ketchup packets.
"It reaffirmed our notion that we need to do more inland," said Matthew King, a spokesman for Heal the Bay. More than 80% of the litter collected, by weight, was from inland sites.
About five miles away, volunteers at the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area found some large items as they canvassed the
Andrew Murdock, a music producer from
"I think it's important to feel one person can make a difference," Murdock said.
Murdock and others also found a car air filter, an overstuffed sofa and a burned shopping cart. They also picked up smaller pieces of litter, and separated them into bags for trash and for recyclables.
"It was bigger than last year's," said Spencer Lussier, 9, who went to the Encino event with his Boy Scout troop.
That was true all over
Statewide, the California Coastal Commission estimated that nearly 50,000 volunteers collected at least 800,000 pounds of trash -- roughly equal to the weight of 80 elephants.
Some of the more unusual items found included a blown-open empty safe in Monterey County and a litter of puppies in the San Joaquin Valley. (The puppies were made available for adoption.)
In
Off Palos Verdes Estates, volunteers found a rusted bike and a crushed guitar at Malaga Cove. In
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-clean16sep16,1,2793859.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Thousands of volunteers help clean waterways, shore; County coastal cleanup campaign yields tons of garbage, recyclables
By Daralyn Schoenewald, staff writer
More than 2,000 volunteers gathered throughout
At least 300 people — families with young children, Boy Scouts, young adults — turned out to clean up the Arroyo Conejo Creek, which runs through
Ron Manwill, environmental programs analyst at the city Public Works Department, organized the cleanup there. "It's very important that we clean up the creek," he said, "because the next time we have a big rain storm, it's going to carry all this debris out to the coastal waters, and it's estimated that 60 to 80 percent of coastal debris is from inland sources."
Miyuki Dees, who works at
"We believe in keeping places clean, and we thought it would be a nice way to spend Saturday with the kids as a family," she said.
Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from several
"I don't think anybody knows what to expect out there, but I did it once before and found shopping carts, baseballs, that sort of thing," she said.
Cigarette butts, plastic bags and bottles, and aluminum cans are the most common finds, according to Stan Hakes,
Since California Coastal Cleanup Day kicked off in 1985, more than 750,000 people have retrieved some 12 million pounds of trash from the shoreline and waterways of the state, according to the group's Web site.
About 50,000 volunteers were expected to clean up 700
In
Some of the local sites ran out of colored trash bags and rubber gloves because more people volunteered than organizers anticipated.
"We had expected no more than 80 people, but 260 people ended up coming out," said Sue Bruning, site captain at San Buenaventura State Beach.
Volunteers there covered two miles of coastline, collecting 200 pounds of trash and 85 pounds of recyclable material.
The cleanup site at
Eliseo Bonilla, 14, said he came to get extra credit for his Earth science class at
"It was fun helping out here," he said. "Walking around the beach is better than just sitting at home." #
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/sep/16/thousands-of-volunteers-help-clean-waterways/
COASTAL CLEANUP DAY; Volunteers hit beaches to clear out the trash
San Francisco Chronicle – 9/16/07
By Justin Berton, staff writer
If you threw out a cigarette butt near
The first-grader used a gloved hand Saturday morning to transfer a nubby filter into a trash bag and made an ick-face. "Another one," she sighed.
The find came as Emily and her mother, Rebecca Cronan, a teacher at
Last year alone, volunteers collected about 348,000 discarded cigarette butts from the state's beaches, according to the California Coastal Commission.
By the Cronans' count, in an hour's time, the mother and daughter had seized about 30 cigarette ends, a handful of straws, snack wrappers, a few plastic water bottles and one pair of underwear.
"I don't want this beach to look like a dump," Emily Cronan said. "I want it to look like an ordinary beach."
This year, while the majority of volunteers combed the state's beaches at 750 locations, there was a new effort to get to the trash before it got to the shore, said Eben Schwartz, statewide director of the project. When Coastal Cleanup Day began more than 20 years ago, volunteers still believed the rubbish had washed up on dry land from boats.
But now, with the pervasive use of plastics and a better understanding of how trash flows to the ocean (as opposed to from it), Schwartz said organizers are expanding their annual project inland, to include parks and creeks.
For the first time, a team of volunteers was dispatched to cleanse the
"If we pick up trash in
Schwartz also said a new kind of "environmental ethic," which he credited to concerns over global warming, had taken hold in the past few years and brought an increase in volunteers and corporate sponsorship to the event.
At
Across the bay, at the Richmond Marina, about 100 volunteers met to clean up their shoreline - one that catches
"What gets dumped in
At Saturday's pickup, a
Martha Berthelsen, program manager at the Watershed Project, a Richmond nonprofit group that works to protect local watersheds, said while she was pleased to see less trash overall at the marina this year, she also noted a rise in plastic containers.
"It's buoyant, it never decomposes, and it's also toxic," she said as she led teams of volunteers toward the beach. "You can't get it all in one day, but you can make an impact."
Erica Milsom, 37, and Ben Choi, 36, arrived at the
They were not unfamiliar with the city's reputation for gun violence, though Milsom said her neighborhood has been spared any such crime. She joined the cleanup crew to integrate herself into her new community.
"You don't move here if you don't want to make it a better place," Milsom said. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/16/BA0QS74NG.DTL
Thousands of Volunteers Help Clean California
ABC Channel 7 (Bay Area) – 9/16/07
By Noel Cisneros
Cleaning up the
Last year, 50,000 people volunteered for the coastal cleanup - this year may exceed that number judging by the 1,500 people just at
"This park is built on the stewardship of those people such a beautiful example of a caring community that wants to come out and help clean the beaches," said Golden Gate National Recreational Area superintendent Brian O'Neill.
The costal cleanup was more than beaches it reached to the
Eighty-percent of what gets picked up on the beach didn't actually start here, it came from up-stream. Rivers and storm drains and estuaries came as far away as the Delta and
"What's going in my mind is that we haven't even seen half of it yet. More its going to come in and this is unfortunately what happens to our beaches in the summer, people use them, people love our beaches but sometimes it's just loving them to death," said Eben Schwartz from the California Coastal Commission.
Last year the costal cleanup recovered a million pounds of trash; 100,000 pounds of it was bottles and cans which were recycled.
Volunteers also painted miles of the graffiti scarred wall. The bottom line of all this effort you could see and feel, right down to your toes. #
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=local&id=5659992
Volunteers wade into summer litter on river parkway
By Todd Milbourn, staff writer
It's easy to visualize a careless smoker flicking his cigarette butt into the river or an absent-minded sunbather dropping her bottle cap on the shore.
But what's a child's car seat doing under a bush on the banks of the
And who would have any need for a Datsun hubcap down here?
It's not up to the more than 1,100 volunteers who descended on the
They just have to clean up the junk.
Saturday was the 29th annual Great American River Clean-Up, and a small army of environmentally minded volunteers fanned out along a 23-mile stretch of the parkway, picking up the random detritus of summer.
"It's incredible to have such an open space and natural environment in the middle of an urban city," said Mary Anne Dann, a board member of the American River Parkway Foundation, which organizes the event. "We've got to take care of it."
In all, volunteers collected about 22,600 pounds of trash and 5,000 pounds of recyclables, mostly in the form of cigarette butts, bottle caps and aluminum cans. That's about how much they gathered last year.
The
Dann said citizen cleanups on the parkway are as important as ever because
"We've got to pick up some of the slack," she said.
One measure of the effort's success, volunteers say, is the type of garbage they pick up. Years ago, they used to find larger items more often -- tires, grocery carts, farm implements. They still find those items but not as often. Now, it's mostly litter.
"It's annoying," said volunteer Jarma Bennett as she hunched to pick up the remains of a Marlboro. "People don't even think of this small stuff as trash."
Litter causes more than eyesores -- it's bad for the ecosystem, said Mary Tappel, an environmental scientist with the state Water Resources Control Board. Tappel spent the morning wading through the water near
"See, look at this -- plastic," said Tappel, removing what appeared to be the remains of a sandwich bag. "Plastic is toxic to wildlife. The sun breaks it down into little pieces and then animals like sea turtles mistake it for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods."
While volunteers like Tappel combed the shores and shallow waters, a group of kayakers set out to reach hard-to-get-to places and came back with plenty of trash -- not all of it identifiable.
"Hmmm. Must have been some sort of plastic flotation device," observed John Terry of Sacramento, as he paddled to shore and examined some of the goopier garbage he found. "Well, at least it's out of the water." #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/381859.html
Residents help revitalize the Yuba
Grass Valley
By Jill Bauerle, staff writer
The hiking trails near
In the span of three hours on Saturday, volunteers from western
“It’s more of an adventure than I ever would have guessed,” said Joe Salamon, clutching a green garbage bag filled with debris he’d picked up from the Independence Trail in Nevada City.
The South Yuba River Citizens League sponsored the event, called “The Great Yuba Cleanup,” in concert with the California Coastal Cleanup Day and the International Coastal Cleanup.
Last year, the California Coastal Commission reported that volunteers across the state collected more than 12 million pounds of debris in one day.
As much as 80 percent of the debris found on
“Over 100,000 marine mammals are dying each year from ingesting plastic,” Lemov said.
The cleanup energized volunteers to scour the ravines and canyons alongside the county’s watershed trails.
One volunteer even dared to test her skills in rappelling, which she’d never tried before.
When Lori Gubera-Stengel saw a blue plastic jug stuck in a tree branch at the bottom of a steep slope near the Independence Trail, she didn’t hesitate to tie a rope around her waist and lower herself down about 20 feet.
“It’s a good thing I did my yoga,” joked Gubera-Stengel as she reached for the jug.
Tip Ruth and his daughter, Lela, four-wheeled their Land Cruiser and trailer over rough terrain. The Ruths’ mission was to join a group of volunteers who were cleaning out an abandoned miner’s cabin and tow out the trash.
Further up the trail, Charles Durrett snipped obtrusive branches that were growing on the bridge at Flume 13. Another volunteer scraped away the sediment of dirt and foliage that had built up on the bridge during the past two winters.
“It’s just a stellar opportunity for citizens to volunteer to help with public lands,” Durrett said about the cleanup.
John Olmstead, who was instrumental in creating the Independence Trail, led a group of about 15 volunteers to the abandoned cabin where Robert McEwen, also known as “Miner Bob,” lived for eight years while he worked as the trail’s manager.
After volunteers loaded up tarpaper, boards, mattresses, Styrofoam and plastic tubing from the cabin, Olmstead conducted an impromptu memorial for McEwen, who died in a trailer fire in 2005.
“He really cared about it being a first-rate wilderness trail,” Olmstead said. #
http://www.theunion.com/article/20070917/NEWS/109170142
Napans volunteer in clean up along local waterways
By Carlos Villatoro, staff writer
The amount of garbage in Napa Creek would have made Oscar the Grouch, the garbage-loving critter on “
An algae-covered shopping cart, a mattress, a couple of bicycle tires and rims, several bottles, beer cans and assorted clothing seemed to dominate the small waterway behind the
It provided a hefty challenge for the volunteers who gathered there to participate in Creek to Bay Cleanup Day. Napa County Resource Conservation District spearheaded the massive effort to rid the
Using a pair of waders Tim Stevens, a staff environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Game, walked through the water and picked up sleeping bags, bottles of beer and just about everything else he could find in the mucky creek.
“Obviously, these are areas where people are staying,” he said. “A significant portion of the trash is related to (that).”
Stevens said the garbage not only ruins the aesthetic aspects of the creek, but also contributes to the risk of flooding in the area and impacts the wildlife that lives there. After about an hour or more of hiking through the creek and battling the stench of urine, Stevens and his fellow volunteers had gathered an impressive amount of garbage and debris.
“What do we do with the batteries?” 13-year-old Eric Oakley, a freshman at
“I suppose we should try and recycle everything we can,” Stevens replied and directed Oakley to place the batteries near the recyclable items.
Oakley volunteered at the creek as part of a science class assignment, he said. Although Oakley usually chooses volunteering at Connolly Ranch, he said he wanted to figure out what Creek to Bay Cleanup Day was all about.
Volunteers gathered at 13 locations throughout the valley, including
At South Wetland Opportunity Area, at the south end of
While 5-year-old Ila Sharp, a kindergartner at Stonebridge Elementary School, filled her bag with little treasures — a fish-shaped fishing lure, a bike reflector, golf balls and lemons — her mother Leigh, a Napa County Resource Conservation District worker, filled her bag with garbage.
“Well, it’s important to me (to volunteer) because it’s what I believe and it does lots of good,” she said. “Birds and other animals eat our garbage.”
Although South Wetland Opportunity Area is closed to the public, the marshland area receives garbage that comes in from the
“The Wetland is a cleaning system for the river,” he said. About 12 volunteers showed up there to pick up tennis balls, shoes, soda bottles and caps.
Last year, 550 volunteers gathered 12,000 pounds of garbage and 3,000 or more pounds of recyclable items at nine sites throughout
This year’s
“Between 60 and 80 percent of the trash we find on Coastal Cleanup Day comes from inland areas,” Eban Schwartz, director of California Coastal Cleanup Day, said in a release. “When you recognize that all those inland waterways will eventually drain to the ocean, you realize that all that extra trash picked up on Coastal Cleanup Day from inland shorelines contributes to keeping our coasts and ocean debris free.” #
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/09/16/news/local/doc46ecae3636738572869779.txt
Volunteers spruce creek
Woodland Daily Democrat – 9/16/07
By Elizabeth Kalfsbeek, staff writer
Superman underwear. A faded love letter. Paintballs. Worn tires. Couch cushions. No, these things are not among thrift store racks, but were found by volunteers along Cache Creek on Saturday who were doing their part for the 23rd-annual Coast and Creek Cleanup Day.
"The community gets a real sense of connection being out here with the creek itself," Jeff Clark, education and outreach coordinator for the Conservancy, said of the 25 to 30 volunteers who participated at the site.
"They get a sense of making a contribution quickly,"
The 2007 Coast and Creek Cleanup is the 23rd year of the California Coastal Cleanup Day program, making this one of the longest-running, and the largest, volunteer events in the state.
More than 50,000 people participated in California Coastal Cleanup Day last year, collecting more than 800,000 pounds of trash. At last year's Coast and Creek Cleanup, 240 volunteers participated in cleanup events in Yolo and Solano counties and removed around 13,375 pounds of trash and recyclables, and cleaned up 14.5 miles of waterways in Yolo County.
"How many of us see trash blowing around a parking lot but are too busy to do anything about it?"
Lynnel Pollock, executive director of the Conservancy, was on hand with the volunteers. "Our mission is to restore and enhance Cache Creek and cleaning up debris is part of that," she said.
This is the fifth year the cleanup site has been at the Cache Creek Conservancy.
"It certainly brings awareness to the broader community of how important it is to dispose of trash and recyclables properly," Pollock said. "It costs to dispose of a tire, for example, and people don't want to pay so they throw them along the road. It's the smaller items that people don't even think about, like fast food papers. It can be detrimental to wildlife."
Over the years volunteers have found some very interesting things, Pollock said. "One year we actually did find the kitchen sink!"
Other trash items have included furniture, chairs, bulky items, cans, broken beer bottles, a filing cabinet, burned out cars, plastic bags, old newspapers and countless other items.
"Dispose of trash properly," Pollock heeded. "Don't throw it out the car window. It's a huge problem countywide, not just along the creek."
Bob and Zoey Heyer-Gray brought their seven-year-old daughter, Helena, and her friend Kate McCabe, 7, to help clean. "We enjoy coming out here and like the creek to be clean," Zoey said. "It seems like one of the few places you can be outdoors, hike and hang out at the creek if you live in
This is the first year the family has come for the cleanup event, but they regularly visit Cache Creek for field trips.
"If you want to go out and enjoy wildlife, you want it to be the way it's supposed to be," Bob said.
"I really like nature and I've seen too many people hurting it, so I decided to come out and help," McCabe said.
The event was organized by a committee including representatives from the Cache Creek Conservancy, city of
In addition, the CALFED Bay-Delta Authority, Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee, Waste Management and Vacaville Sanitary provided support for the event.
Spencer Defty of Diamond D Engineering donated equipment to pull larger items out of the creek edge. Tiechart Construction and Granite Construction members were also on hand.
"It was a good turnout to get the work done," Pollock said. "We certainly appreciate the turnout and thank the people who came, many of whom were past participants."
If people are interested at volunteering at different times of the year, Pollock said, the Conservancy will certainly be willing to work with them.
"Volunteers come out here thinking they're going to do a dirty job, but they end up leaving with knowledge and a connection to nature and wildlife," said
For more information of the Conservancy, visit http://www.cachecreek.org. #
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_6911633
####
No comments:
Post a Comment