COLUSA, CA (MPG) – Colusa County residents love the Sacramento River and their waterfront parks, and they work hard to take care of them.
Dozens of volunteers last Saturday rolled up their sleeves to pick up trash from the Sacramento River Recreation Area to Bridge Street, in Colusa, as part of the largest volunteer event in the state.
The annual Colusa River Cleanup on Aug. 23, sponsored by Premier Mushrooms, and hosted by the County Chamber of Commerce, was one of 700 events along the coast, streams, and rivers.
“This is our 10th year,” said Chamber Manager Jennifer Diaz.
Saturday’s event was held in conjunction with the 39th annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, which focuses on protecting inland rivers and the ocean from an abundance of debris that harms marine life and degrades the environment.
Sawyer Stocks, 14, a member of Colusa Boys Scouts Troop 5, was nine or 10 years old when he first started volunteering at the event, pre-COVID.
“It helps keep the park clean and keeps trash out of the river,” said Stocks, who worked alongside several other Troop 5 Boy Scouts, Troop 5 Cub Scouts, and Troop leaders.
Volunteers of all ages trampled over rocks along the levee or strolled along walking trails behind the state park, picking up what people carelessly left behind before it washes into the river at the onset of fall rain.
“We picked up a lot,” said Robynn Chamberlin, whose group tallied 45 cigarette butts and dozens more bottle caps, plastic and aluminum beverage containers, and debris left by boaters and fishermen.
Supervisors Janice Bell found the skull of a horned ram. Volunteers also found drug paraphernalia, old clothing, shoes, and other remnants of illegal camping.
With just 50 percent of the cleanup sites reporting by Sunday, the statewide count stood at 25,570 volunteers, said Eben Schwartz, marine debris program manager for the California Coastal Commission,
By the time the complete tally is known, volunteers would have gathered hundreds of tons of trash at beaches, shorelines, and inland waterways, cleaning up at locations in virtually all of California’s 58 counties. Cleanups took place up and down the coast, from the Oregon border to Mexico, and as far inland as Lake Tahoe, Schwartz said.
Based on past cleanup data, 75 percent of the debris that volunteers remove is composed of plastic, a material that never completely biodegrades and has numerous harmful consequences in the environment. Plastic debris can kill wildlife, leach toxic chemicals into the environment, and even introduce them into the food chain, the Coastal Commission reported. The data has also shown that up to 80 percent of the trash on the California coast originates on land, so volunteers across the state helped prevent enormous amounts of trash from ever reaching the ocean, no matter where they participated.
Colusa resident, Dr. Kerri Bartlett, who worked alongside former Supervisor Denise Carter, another Colusa Cleanup Day regular, said she first volunteered at the coastal event many years ago with her daughter, and has participated in the Sacramento River Cleanup Day ever since it started.
“It was a really good idea that they included rivers,” Bartlett said. “After all, our rivers run to the ocean.”
While plastic cups, straws, bottles, soda cans, candy wrappers, and cigarette butts are typical items picked up by volunteers, several “unusual” items were also removed during this year’s cleanup.
Schwartz said a Yolo County group found a floppy disk, which could not be identified by any of the younger volunteers. Another volunteer in Marin County found a card associated with someone from North Carolina’s cremated remains, perhaps a result of someone’s wish for their ashes to be spread off the California Coast.
Diaz said Premier Mushrooms’ Colusa River Cleanup, which included a catered lunch, could not have happened without the support of sponsors, including River Partners, T&R Restore, and Recology.
The City of Colusa provided the dumpsters.
“We are happy to be a part of this,” said Josh Waddell, restoration field manager for River Partners. “River Partners started in 1998. Since then, we have restored close to 20,000 acres along floodplains and riverfronts.”
Waddell said only about 5% of California’s original river habitat is left and all waterways should be protected.
“Healthy rivers are essential for a thriving state,” he said.