Coastal cleanup – in Salinas
Join Return of the Natives on Sept. 17
The annual worldwide Coastal Cleanup Day is the largest volunteer event on the planet. If you’d like to help make history, join CSU Monterey Bay’s Return of the Natives on Sept. 17 to clean up the California coast.
In just three hours on cleanup day in 2010, more than 6,000 Santa Cruz and Monterey County volunteers worked at 80 cleanup sites to prevent nearly 20,000 pounds of pollution from entering the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
This year’s event will include 33 sites in Monterey County, including Upper Carr Lake in Salinas. RON is encouraging people to help clean up trash and debris along the creek from 9 a.m. to noon.
More than 80 percent of the plastics and other litter that pollutes the oceans comes from land sources. That means the litter that’s picked up during the Coastal Cleanup in Salinas will make a difference. Last year, volunteers removed more than 535 pounds of trash from Natividad Creek, protecting the ocean and keeping flood channels open.
Upper Carr Lake is located off East Laurel Drive between Constitution Boulevard and Sanborn Road.
Snacks, water and tools will be provided. To help lower the carbon footprint of the event, volunteers are encouraged to bring their own reusable bags, buckets and gloves.
More information is available at http://watershed.csumb.edu/ron or by calling 582-3686.
Return of the Natives is dedicated to bringing people closer to nature and nature closer to people through hands-on participation in restoring habitats. RON, the education and outreach arm of the Watershed Institute, is housed at CSUMB.
100 Campus Center
