August is a Banner Month for the Summer Creek Cleanup Challenge
By Deb Kramer
In August, we hosted three creek cleanups along Coyote Creek to remove as much trash as we could from the dry creek beds. The drought has provided us with a unique opportunity to really get into the creek and dig out that old, legacy trash. The challenge was to have 10 cleanups removing 10 tons of trash with 1,000 volunteers. We’re well on the way to contributing to that total.
Saturday, August 22, we had 49 volunteers remove nearly 3 tons of trash from a section near Galveston Avenue. The crew worked hard with large, bulky items, including couches, huge pieces of plywood, and many bikes and bike parts. See our album of photos on our Facebook page. As one volunteer said, “The eerie green algae had many floating items of trash.” Blech! And, Council member Tam Nguyen welcomed volunteers with his message of hope for a park-like creek setting for all to enjoy. He also stayed to help cleanup, and was appalled by the log jam and all the trash that piled up in and on it.
We hosted two back-to-back cleanups the subsequent weekend. Roosevelt Park was host to the Saturday, August 29th event, where we focused on a very steep embankment where we removed a half ton of trash, including a soggy mattress, and watched several white ducks float by.
In partnership with Santa Clara County Parks, we worked Sunday, August 30th with Council member Ash Kalra to clean at reach near Silver Creek Valley Road. All together, 47 volunteers removed nearly half a ton of trash. Especially challenging were the little bits of Styrofoam and cigarette butts. Let’s put trash in its place, and that is not our creeks!
All in all, a very successful August with 163 volunteers removing nearly 4 tons fo trash. And, there is still more to do. Join us for Coastal Cleanup Day 2015 at Coyote Meadows, one of our largest sites yet.