California Coastal Clean-Up Day: Help Keep Your Favorite California Hiking Beaches Trash-Free

California Coastal Clean-Up Day is this Saturday, September 19. If you’re like me, you love hiking on beaches and coastal trails. When I lived in Crescent City, I walked Pebble Beach twice every day. (My golden retrievers insisted on it.)

Here’s what sponsor California Coastal Commission says:

California Coastal Cleanup Day is the premier volunteer event focused on the marine environment in the country. In 2008, more than 70,000 volunteers worked together to collect more than 1,600,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from our beaches, lakes, and waterways. California Coastal Cleanup Day has been hailed by the Guinness Book of World Records as “the largest garbage collection” (1993). Since the program started in 1985, over 800,000 Californians have removed more than 13 million pounds of debris from our state’s shorelines and coast. When combined with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by The Ocean Conservancy and taking place on the same day, California Coastal Cleanup Day becomes part of one of the largest volunteer events of the year.

Coastal Cleanup Day is the highlight of the California Coastal Commission’s year ’round Adopt-A-Beach program and takes place every year on the third Saturday of September, from 9 a.m. to Noon. In 2009, that day falls on September 19. Coming at the end of the summer beach season and right near the start of the school year, Coastal Cleanup Day is a great way for families, students, service groups, and neighbors to join together, take care of our fragile marine environment, show community support for our shared natural resources, learn about the impacts of marine debris and how we can prevent them, and to have fun! Coastal Cleanup Day is also the kick-off event for Coastweeks-three weeks of coastal and water-related events for the whole family.

Participating in Coastal Cleanup Day is as easy as 1, 2, 3! Pre-register with your local Coordinator, or simply show up at any of our drop-in sites (which will be placed on the county contact pages as they become available).

And for our Bay Area readers, here’s specific details on how you can participate through East Bay Regional Park District:

Volunteers are needed to join in East Bay Regional Park District’s share of the 25th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, scheduled for Saturday, September 19.

Participants will help to rid the shoreline of trash and debris, as well as recyclables. Of particular concern is the plastic refuse that collects along the shore because of its detrimental effect on the wildlife.

Major sponsors of the event include Contra Costa County Public Works Departments, Allied Waste Services, Richmond Sanitary, and Waste Management Inc.

Contributors include BIOTA Corporation, Martinez Refining Co., Peet’s Coffee, Starbucks and the cities of Hayward, Martinez, Oakland, Pinole, Pittsburg, Rodeo and San Leandro.

The work day will last from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Volunteers should wear work clothes, gloves, and sturdy shoes and should bring snacks. Beverages will be provided.

Volunteers may choose among fourteen staging areas in the two counties where cleanup crews may assemble. Pre-registration is required. To register contact Anne Kassebaum at the Park District except where noted.

Alameda County
• Robert Crown Memorial State Beach, Alameda. Meet on the beach side of the Intersection of Park Street and Shoreline Drive in Alameda. Reservations required: call (510) 747-7529 (Alameda Parks and Recreation).
• Middle Harbor Shoreline Park, off intersection of Middle Harbor Road and 7th Street in Oakland.
• Martin Luther King, Jr., Regional Shoreline, off Oakport St. between 66th and Lesser St. in Oakland. Meet at the Oakport Soccer Field about 1/4 mile north of 66th St. on Oakport.

San Leandro Marina, end of Lewelling Blvd. in San Leandro.

• Shoreline Interpretive Center, Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, west end of Breakwater Dr. in Hayward.

Hayward Regional Shoreline, end of W. Winton Ave. in Hayward.

• Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Reservations required: call (510) 792-0222, ext. 43 (Don Edwards S.F. B.N.W.R).
• Del Valle Regional Park, end of Del Valle Road, Livermore.

Contra Costa County
• Bay Point Regional Shoreline, Port Chicago Highway exit off Hwy. 4 in Bay Point, go north to McAvoy Harbor.

Martinez Regional Shoreline, north end of Ferry St. in Martinez.

• Eckley Pier, Bull Valley Staging Area, Carquinez Regional Shoreline on Carquinez Scenic Drive between Port Costa and Crockett.

Lone Tree Point, end of Pacific Ave. in Rodeo.
Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, Giant Highway in Richmond.
Bayfront Park, west end of Tennent Ave. in Pinole.

• Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, end of Isabel St. in Richmond.

Organizations working with the Park District to stage the event include the California Department of Fish and Game, Civicorps, Friends of the Franklin Hills, Friends of Alhambra Creek, Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed, Hayward Area Recreation District, Save the Bay and Senator Torlakson’s office.

To volunteer for the shoreline and creeks cleanup or to obtain more information, call Anne Kassebaum, Recreation Services Manager, at (510) 544-2552 or e-mail her at akassebaum@ebparks.org

Beach sunset. (Photo by John Soares)