By donating a few hours in October, local residents have helped clean and restore one of San Diego County’s most important wetlands, while protecting the ocean and improving local roads in a green way.
Working with the County of San Diego and WiLDCOAST, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting coastal ecosystems, volunteers have collected tons of trash and tires from the Tijuana River Valley Estuary in a series of Saturday-morning cleanup events.
The events have netted the following to date:
• Oct. 18: San Diego Job Corps personnel pulled approximately 400 previously unearthed tires from the channel and removed another 500-600 tires in a single day.
• Oct. 9: 37 volunteers, including 13 youth, picked removed 4,175 of trash and 13 tires
• Oct. 2: (hosted by I Love a Clean San Diego and Outside the Lens) 91 volunteers picked up 1000 lbs of trash and removed 75 tires
• Sept 25: 30 volunteers picked up approximately 500 pounds of trash and unearthed approximately 400 tires (which were removed October 18).
Another cleanup day scheduled for October 23 had to be rescheduled because of the rains. Check the DPW index page for notice of the new date.
County Supervisor Greg Coxhas proclaimed October as Tijuana River Action Month and is also participating in the cleanup efforts.
“WiLDCOAST is working hard to clean up and protect our natural resources and I urge all San Diegans to come out and pitch in,” Cox said.
The estuary is home to several federally protected birds and threatened habitat including costal sage scrub and chaparral. But it’s also a place where winter rains flow strong enough each year to carry thousands of used tires and tons of trash from upstream.
This year, the County Department of Public Works recycling program is using a state grant to recycle the tires that are cleared from the estuary. Instead of being carried to sea, the tires will be shredded and re-used to pave local roads.
Contact WildCoast at (619) 423-8665, ext. 211, or go to wildcoast.net to find out how to volunteer or get additional information.
Below: pictures how the estuary looked before the cleanup.
Thanks to everyone who has volunteered to clean up and protect our environment!
