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| 4/14/2009 4:25:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article
Comment on this article | Guest Column: Clean the beach and honor
By ELLEN ANDERSON
Earth Day "Think global, act local" has true meaning as we pay homage to Mother Earth by joining other beach lovers along our entire Washington coastline to clean the beach on Saturday, April 18, in a statewide beach cleanup effort. Official start time is 9:30 a.m. at any major beach approach on the Long Beach Peninsula. Beach approach coordinators at each major beach entrance will greet you and get you going.
HAMs and TrucksWe are blessed to have the ham radio operators join us again to help coordinate bag pickup and find sections of beach not getting attention. If any cleaners need bags or have any messages they need relayed to the nearest approach, they can flag down these specially marked vehicles for those purposes. These hams do have some restrictions, however, so don't expect them to help with heavy objects, stuck vehicles, etc.
Our wonderful truck force will be on duty to collect filled bags and haul them to the dumpsters. Those trucks will be identified by neon green streamers. Any unmarked vehicles can be assumed to belong to cleaners or other beach-goers. You should have no need to flag down one of these trucks unless there is an item too large for you to handle that will fit into that truck. Then, by all means, wave it to a stop and direct it to the object needing collection. Otherwise, these trucks will be working more or less on assignment and need to keep moving. Large or problem items needing collection by "men with machines" should be reported to the roaming hams and they will get the message to the appropriate place.
Speaker, Potluck and Soup FeedJoin in the potluck Friday night, April 17, at the Peninsula Senior Center, starting at 5 p.m. Mike Tierney, a bar pilot on the Columbia River, will talk about the history of bar pilots, describe the process of piloting the many vessels that cross the bar here, and provide an overview of the various types of ships and crews that he encounters. It's always fun at the potluck to visit with other volunteers from past cleanups and meet new ones. At the same time, beach approach coordinators and adopt-a-beach leaders can take that opportunity to load up on cleanup supplies for the next day.
A free soup feed to thank the volunteers follows the cleanup, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Peninsula Senior Center. Come in, get warm, enjoy some great chow, meet other beach lovers, swap stories, and enjoy the community.
Adopt-A-Beach members, contact your leader to let them know that you are ready to "walk green" on April 18. Speaking of adopt-a-beach groups, in fact, we need lots more help! Families, neighbors, co-workers, organizations, if you can just commit to a few hours three times a year, stewarding a small section of beach, contact Shelly Pollock at 665-5388, Mom Earth could be shining in our neck of the woods with your help!
Data CollectionFor the first time during this cleanup we have a chance to help ourselves and national organizations that focus on ocean health (e.g. The Ocean Conservancy) better understand what we find and the quantity found. This can be done in such a way that no GRGG volunteer needs to process the data. It's pretty simple. You simply log on to Washington CoastSavers at www.CoastSavers.org/ datacollection and review what specific items these national groups are using to define the ocean's health. Then, when you are out there cleaning, keep a mental tally of the quantity of these items found. If you are working together within an adopt-a-beach group, perhaps different people could tally different items. Once you are done cleaning, take your data and enter it directly on www.coastsavers.org/datacollection. The Washington CoastSavers will tally the data received from volunteers along our state coastline and submit the data to these national groups.
Why is collection data important? Stop to think about it. In the last GRGG newsletter we talked about small pieces of rope found in January. That is an interesting fact. But the fact that two people in less than one-half mile found 130 pieces tells the real story. Such quantitative data makes a greater impact on understanding the degree of the problem. National groups incorporate this data into educational materials, grant requests, and so on. We can use it to explain the financial support needs of the GrassRoots Garbage Gang to our benevolent supporters. Printed data collection sheets will also be available at the potluck on Friday night.
CoastSaversThe GrassRoots Garbage Gang is a member of the Washington CoastSavers, the statewide group formed in 2007 to unite in tackling beach litter. To date, the statewide group plans a once-a-year cleanup in April each year.
ParadesWe hope to raise awareness of our cleanup efforts by participating in the Loyalty Day parade on May 3 in Long Beach as well as Ocean Park's Fourth of July parade. Want to participate? Call or e-mail Shelly Pollock.
www.ourbeach.orgThe GrassRoots Garbage Gang is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit group that cleans up the Peninsula beaches in SW Washington. We are always looking for enthusiastic, like-minded volunteers to join!
Three times a year hundreds of volunteers (including 20 Adopt-a-Beach groups) clean the Peninsula's 28-mile beach. Support comes from incredible volunteers, local businesses, Pacific County and Washington State Parks, plus grants from the Washington State Department of Ecology. GRGG is a recent winner of eTown's eAcheviement Award (a radio program on Natonal Public Radio.)
We would love your help.
E-mail Shelly Pollock at (Shelly@OurBeach.org) or call her at 665-5388 to learn more!
Thank you - and we look forward to seeing you on the beach!
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