31st Annual Coastal Clean-up Day
The Santa Clara River Got a Pick-Me-Up
EVENTS
California Trout, Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy partnered to co-captain the Santa Clara River Gateway site as part of the 31st anniversary of International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, September 19, 2015. This was the second year the groups partnered at this new site to clear trash from the lower Santa Clara River main stem.
25 volunteers worked tirelessly between 09:00am until 12:00pm to clear 1,399 pounds of garbage from two square miles of the Santa Clara River. Almost a TON – tires, shopping carts, shoes, gloves, golf bag, eyeglasses, a bible... you name it! The teens from Foothill Technology High School were an inspiration! The youngsters from Sierra Linda 5th Grade (Oxnard) turned the time into a fantastic fun work party! What a pleasure to see young stewards of our environment getting involved and supporting local community efforts.
Volunteers picked up all human-made debris at the site and recorded what they removed on data cards. The data collected is inserted into the Ocean Conservancy’s international database, which helps identify the sources of debris, and helps inform strategies to address marine pollution. The Santa Clara River Steelhead Coalition’s mission; of which CalTrout is the chair, is to protect and restore wild southern California steelhead and its habitat in the Santa Clara River watershed spanning Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) are rainbow trout that exhibit an anadramous (i.e., migrating to and from the ocean) life history.
Fishing line is a big perpetrator that is collected on Coastal Cleanup Day. And Friends of the Los Angeles River have initiated their Fishing Line Recycling Program in an effort to combat the effects fishing line has on
local wildlife. Click here for more information about
this program.
Thanks again to all our volunteers!
Keeping our rivers, beaches, and estuaries clean of pollution and promoting good water quality along our coast and waterways is imperative to the recovery of this federally endangered species. Coastal Cleanup Day is just one way to help us fulfill this mission.
