Many people will look at this picture and squint at it thinking, what is that?
“Are those rocks?” is a common question we’ve heard since releasing this picture after last week’s Kids Ocean Day. The design is definitely not made of rocks, or shells, or even trash from a cleanup. This amazing image is a piece of living art made up of over 1000 people. Yep, those are local San Diego students, parents, volunteers and the ILACSD staff sitting on the sand at Crown Point Shores sending a message to the rest of San Diego to ‘Defend the Sea.’
Kids Ocean Day is how we here at I Love A Clean San Diego get kids involved in celebrating World Oceans Day each year. This amazing work of art started as just an idea a few months ago, and was brought to life by ILACSD’s Environmental Educator, Alex Mullen-Ley and Education Coordinator, Samantha. Our staff were up before the sun last Thursday, mapping out and drawing Alex’s design in the sand.
As the buses began arriving, 3rd-5th grade students from 8 local schools started the day by cleaning up the beach, finding cigarette butts, beverage containers and small pieces of plastic.
The excitement started to build as we began lining the students up to file into the aerial art and the news helicopter started circling overhead. It was amazing to watch our octopus come to life piece by piece as the students and volunteers started to fill in the lines of the image. Most of the kids had never been a part of anything like this and were very excited to find their place in the sand.
Last but not least, the I Love A Clean San Diego staff sat down to form the eye of the octopus.
The second helicopter arrived, carrying our friend and photographer Rachel Lebowitz from Outside the Lens, another local nonprofit that teaches youth to use digital media to create change within themselves and their community. We were so impressed at how well behaved the students were as we waited for word from Rachel that she’d gotten the perfect shot!
Kids Ocean Day was coordinated in 5 cities in California, all using the theme ‘Defend the Sea’ in their designs. Click here to visit the Ocean Day website and see all of the amazing aerial art images!
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Community Events Intern, Gabe Grinstein.
Gabe (left) with other ILACSD Interns at San Diego River Days
Hello San Diego,
It is nice to finally be back in this great city after a long and chilly school year at the University of Michigan. I just finished my third year of college, where I am majoring in Earth and Environmental Sciences with a minor in the Program in the Environment (PITE). As you can see by what I study, I have a strong passion for the environment. Since I am graduating next May, I really wanted to see what working in an environmental organization was all about, and I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) has been the perfect place.
As a homegrown North County kid, having attending Torrey Pines High School and being surrounded by this city’s renowned beauty, I have always held San Diego in high regard. However, many environmental problems still persist in our community, both coastal and inland, and joining ILACSD has given me a chance to make a real difference. After a month of working here I have learned many valuable skills that will go a long way in my work in the environmental field.
The whole staff has really made me feel at home right from the beginning. Of course there have been frustrating times where I get tasks such as endless filing of names and waivers, but then what are interns for? However, they do give me responsibility such as second-in-command at the San Diego River Days cleanup. I also took a tutorial for ArcGIS mapping, which taught me how to make dynamic maps (such as all the details in Google Maps) so I will be able to map out storm drains throughout San Diego for ILACSD’s Storm Drain Stenciling program. This tool will be very useful for any environmental assessment in the future.
Just some of the trash picked up at Clean Canyons
This past Saturday we hosted Clean Canyons for a Clean Coast, an inland cleanup at Chollas Creek. With an attendance of 47 people, we had a decent turnout and stayed busy cleaning up the area. There was plenty of trash for everyone to grab the entire time, and I feel like we at least made a dent in the heavily polluted canyon. We ended up collecting 315 pounds of recycling and filling up one whole rolloff dumpster of trash, which added up to 4,360 pounds!
We are keeping the events rolling as we are hosting Kids’ Ocean Day this coming Thursday at Crown Point Shores. I have never participated in the cleanup, but have heard it is a blast and at the end a helicopter flies over and takes a picture of everyone sitting in the formation of a sea creature.
Aerial art formation at Kids’ Ocean Day 2011
I will have to start at 5 am that day, which is not favorable for a college student, but there is no better way to spend an early work day than at the beach.
Many people consider Memorial Day weekend to be the unofficial beginning of summer. The amazing weather and beautiful beaches of San Diego draw hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors to our shores, especially during holiday weekends. Unfortunately, many of those people leave a trail of trash behind them, polluting our beaches and the ocean. The Clean Beach Coalition is a group of local nonprofit organizations who work together to remind beach goers to be aware of the amount of trash they make and to prevent more debris from ending up in our ocean.
I Love A Clean San Diego, FreePB.org, Surfrider Foundation and San Diego Coastkeeper, work together with the help of sponsors like Pacific Beach Shore Club and Think Blue, the City of San Diego’s Storm Water & Transportation Department, to place hundreds of temporary trash and recycling bins along San Diego’s most popular beaches during the 4th of July and Labor Day holidays.
As part of the Clean Beach Coalition, we wanted to share a few tips to help keep our beaches as clean as possible this summer. You can also visit the Clean Beach Coalition website, www.cleanbeachcoalition.org, for more information.
Put trash in trash cans
This one seems obvious, right? Sometimes it means a few extra steps down the beach, but making sure your trash makes it IN a trash can is an easy way to make sure it stays OUT of the ocean. The CBC makes this even easier on holiday weekends by putting out extra trash and recycling bins in Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Mission Bay and Pacific Beach.
Pack it in, pack it out
If you brought it with you, take it home! Don’t leave anything behind, no matter how small. Bringing food and drinks in reusable containers will minimize the number of wrappers, bottle caps, etc. for you to keep track of.
Recycle your bottles and cans
Bring an extra bag with you to collect your recyclables in case there isn’t a recycling bin near you. Even better, bring all of your beverages in reusable bottles!
Clean up after your pet
Not only is pet waste not fun to look at (or smell…or step in), it can contaminate our water supply with dangerous bacteria. Be sure to come prepared to clean up after your pets.
Use a funnel to prevent spills when re-fueling your boat or jet ski
It’s one thing to have a spill on land that will probably wash into the water at some point, but spilling oil or gasoline directly in the water? That’s easily avoidable pollution with the right tools.
Even though the CBC’s trash and recycling bins help to control litter on our beaches, inevitably some trash still finds its way onto the sand. We’ll be looking for volunteers to help us at our Morning After Mess cleanup on July 5th at various beach sites up and down the coast.
Make sure you’re following I Love A Clean San Diego on Facebook, Twitter or with our monthly e-newsletter for more information on how you can help us keep San Diego clean all summer long!
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Hotline Manager, Amanda Sweet.
Do you recycle at your home or business? For most of you the answer is probably yes. However there are many businesses and multi-family properties around San Diego who are still not recycling.
Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 341 (AB341) into law this past October, requiring all businesses that generate four cubic yards of solid waste per week, multi-family properties of five units or more (four units in the unincorporated San Diego County areas), as well as public entities to recycle. The law will go into effect July 1, 2012.
Legislators recently set a goal to increase the state’s recycling rate to 75 percent by 2020 and AB341 is part of this broader push to conserve natural resources in California.
According to the state, approximately 75 percent of our waste stream comes from businesses, and while the residential recycling rate in the county’s unincorporated areas is 47 percent, commercial businesses are recycling less than 20 percent of their solid waste.
In addition to businesses, approximately 29 percent of San Diego’s multi-family complexes have five or more units in them, and many do not have recycling set up for their residents. A study done in 1999 found that an average multi-family complex recycling program diverted 15 percent of the residents waste through recycling. Every multi-family complex is different and programs can be tailored to meet the needs of the community, diversion rates can be even higher than 15 percent with a little effort by residents.
Recycling at your work or home can help save our natural resources and dwindling landfill space. If your place of work or home does not currently offer recycling, you can visit WasteFreeSD.org or call I Love A Clean San Diego at 1-800-237-BLUE to find out what options are available for you.
All of us here at I Love A Clean San Diego were excited to partner with Sony for our first ever Volunteers in Action photo contest at the 2012 Creek to Bay Cleanup. The event was a huge success and the contest gave our volunteers a chance to show off their hard work.
We asked volunteers to take pictures during the event and then send us the photo that they thought best captured the spirit of our Creek to Bay Cleanup. 58 entries were submitted from cleanup sites all over San Diego and the ILACSD staff narrowed it down to the top 3 which were then posted to our Facebook page for our fans to vote one the winner.
585 votes were cast and there was a clear winner…
The winning entry, taken at the Fashion Valley Mall cleanup site along the San Diego River.
Congratulations to Kevin, who took this photo of just some of the cigarette butts found at his cleanup site!
Thank you to all of the volunteers who submitted their pictures. Our next big cleanup event is Coastal Cleanup Day on September 15, 2012, we hope to see you there!
On Saturday, April 28th, 2012, volunteers from across San Diego County joined together for I Love A Clean San Diego’s 10th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup. After gathering information from all of our sites, we’re excited to officially announce our totals:
88 cleanup sites (29 coastal, 59 inland)
6,000 volunteers
185 miles of coastal and inland areas covered
150,000 pounds of trash
These numbers reflect approximately 600 MORE volunteers than last year, but they collected a few thousand pounds LESS in trash and debris than the previous year’s totals. What does this mean? Our cleanup events like Creek to Bay and the upcoming Coastal Cleanup Day, are effective and San Diego is becoming a cleaner city! Although we expanded into brand new (and much dirtier) sites, many of our volunteer Site Captains noted a decrease in pollution in their areas. In the upcoming years, we look forward to focusing on newer, in-need sites that haven’t received as much attention in the past.
Updated: Photo contest voting has ended. You can see our winner here!
Although the cleanup has ended, don’t forget to vote for your favorite picture from the event on our Facebook page for our Volunteers In Action Photo Contest! Volunteers sent in photos that they thought represented the spirit of the Creek to Bay Cleanup with hopes of winning a brand new Sony camera. We’ve narrowed the contest down to three finalists:
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Marketing & Community Events Intern, Maddy Blake.
My name is Madelyn Blake and I am a senior at the University of San Diego. I’ll be graduating in May 2012 with a double major in Political Science and Philosophy, but my passion lies with environmental stewardship.
As I entered the final semester of my college career, I knew that I wanted to gain internship experience in the environmental field. I’ve always been passionate about these issues but after traveling the world, I realized the harmful impacts human actions have on the natural world around us. While researching environmental non-profit organizations, I stumbled upon I Love A Clean San Diego and knew I wanted to be a part of their cause.
I began interning with ILACSD in February as an Outreach Intern. I attended cleanup events in order to help volunteers with checking in and weighing the bags of trash they returned to us at the end of the day. I loved being out in the sun with like-minded individuals and having the ability to walk around and help out wherever I could. The events are full of energy, fun and dedication towards cleaning the natural habitat. Aside from working at cleanup events, Outreach Interns also attend community festivals and fairs. These are my favorite events because I am able to talk about our organization, our cause and recommend ways for people to get involved. I love sharing what ILACSD is doing in the entirety of San Diego County and learning from other people what environmental issues affect them most often. It provides me with more insight to the unique issues found in our neighborhoods and helps me to understand why ILACSD works throughout the county.
My favorite event this year was in La Mesa at Mt. Helix Park. I Love A Clean San Diego had a booth with an “Emergency” themed game for children. The kids had to pick up different types of trash without letting the buzzer go off, and then place the items in the appropriate places: recycling, hazardous waste, compost or regular, old trash. I loved when the kids were excited about placing the items in the correct places and how they explained why they chose that particular place. I was surprised at how knowledgeable they were and sometimes, they even outshined their parents! It’s refreshing to know that these younger generations have such a great understanding of the environment and realize the impact they can make by doing the right thing.
Although I began interning through our community events department, I started working with the marketing department as well. I primarily worked on research projects in the beginning, but have recently moved on to social media-based projects. This includes writing press releases, blog posts, Facebook updates and Tweets. It’s been really fun because I can be creative and show mine and ILACSD’s personality through all of these outlets. This position has given me the opportunity to see our influence on the community through social media and how it allows us to reach more people through Internet-based mediums.
Because of my internships with I Love A Clean San Diego, I’ve learned things both about myself and the environment. As for the latter, the most striking information that I’ve acquired is a knowledge of items that can and cannot be put in the recycling bin. For example, I’ve lived my entire life thinking that flimsy plastic bags are recyclable… they’re not. And I vow to stay far, far away from them. I think the coolest part about ILACSD is their recycling hotline, WasteFreeSD.org – it’s so easy and convenient to use. As for myself, I’ve learned that working for a non-profit isn’t always glamorous work, but it’s motivating because you’re working for a higher cause. The people in this office are friendly and really know their stuff. They’re qualified and experienced and just in general, wonderful people who want to make a difference. I thank them for this opportunity and look forward to volunteering with them in future years to come.
The ILACSD staff would like to thank Maddy for her hard work this semester and we wish her the best of luck in the exciting adventures she will embark on after graduation!
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Environmental Educator, Alex Mullen-Ley.
Students consult their field guides on a Nearby Nature walk.
It is easy to see that the staff members here at I Love A Clean San Diego are all fervent environmentalists. I can confidently say that this enthusiasm is due in no small part to our unique childhood experiences in the great outdoors. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, maintains that a child’s experience in nature is vital to his or her development.Studies have shown that youth who spend time outside are happier, healthier, and are better at learning than those who spend most of their time indoors. ILACSD’s Nearby Nature program allows our educators to help youth connect with nature by leading them on an outdoor walk through a natural area close to their school. We recently had the opportunity to take elementary students from two very different schools out of the comfort of their classrooms and into the wild.
Our first group of students was from John Muir Elementary, a school with a rather serendipitous name located next to Tecolote Canyon Natural Park. After a short set of instructions and a safety talk in the classroom, we led the students out the door and down into the canyon. It was cool and invigorating early in the morning, and I was amazed to hear that many students had never been to the canyon before, despite its proximity to the school.
We handed all of the students a field guide with colorful pictures of San Diego’s native species. They used the guides throughout the walk to identify the plants and animals that we saw during the short walk through the canyon. The most exciting part of the adventure was when one group walked around a corner and saw a three-foot long snake lying across the middle of the trail not five feet away! After everyone had calmed down, the students looked up the reptile in their naturalist guides and identified it as a harmless Gopher Snake. We all breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Back in the classroom, the students showed each other leaf rubbings that they had done and swapped stories about the different plants, animals and flowers that they had seen on the hike. Before we left, I asked my group if they were going to visit the canyon again with their parents. A loud, “yeah!” evidenced their enthusiasm. The ILACSD Educators all left the school with satisfied smiles.
We drove all the way to James Dukes Elementary School in Ramona a week later. The school is in a comparatively rural location, but again I was surprised to hear that the majority of the students hadn’t yet explored the nearby greenbelt.
Students drew a picture of a yucca plant in their notebooks.
The kids had just learned about Kumeyaay culture, and were excited to tell us about how the Native American tribe had used elements from the surrounding environment to survive. The students became the teachers when they told us educators about how the Kumeyaay made sandals out of Yucca and Agave fibers, crafted pots out of clay, and ground up California Live Oak acorns to make most of their food.
Exhausted after the hike, the students collapsed in their chairs in the temperature-controlled classroom and filled out a short survey. The survey only had three questions: what the most interesting thing they saw on the hike was; one thing they learned; and what nature means to them. Their responses were all honest and heartening. Nature was described as awesome, special, wonderful, interesting, and in the words of one fourth grader, “calming. Any time I go into nature I feel safe.”
The Nearby Nature program is one of the most rewarding for us as educators. While we do enjoy teaching young students inside the classroom, it is extra satisfying to watch them get excited at seeing the native plants and animals in their neighborhoods. The statistics do reveal that kids these days are missing out on the benefits of experiencing nature, but it pleases me to know that there are at least a few children in San Diego who have had the chance to explore a beautiful natural area in their neighborhood.
If you are a 3rd – 6th grade teacher in San Diego County who is interested in having your students participate in the Nearby Nature program next year, please contact our Education department at education@cleansd.org.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD Environmental Educator, Alex Mullen-Ley.
Kids’ Ocean Day 2011 Aerial Art
It’s hard to imagine that there are children here in San Diego who have never been to the beach before. Many of us take for granted that when it gets hot outside, everyone heads to the coast. One of I Love A Clean San Diego’s upcoming educational programs is giving underserved youth the chance to visit the beach for the very first time.
On June 7th, as part of the 19th annual Kids’ Ocean Day Adopt-A-Beach Cleanup, ILACSD is coordinating nearly 900 students from eight Title I schools to help clean up the beach and make a visual statement in the sand about their concern for the future of the oceans. This is the third year that ILACSD will be holding the event at Crown Point Shores, and the ninth year that we have acted as the regional coordinators.
The annual event started in Los Angeles in 1994 by the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education and the California Coastal Commission. The original goals of the program were to increase public awareness of ocean issues and to connect children to the marine environment. Over the past 18 years, the event’s range has expanded to include 7 cities along the California coast.
During the month of May, ILACSD’s educators will visit each school to give the students a presentation about the importance of minimizing our impact on the marine environment and to get them excited to participate in the aerial art project. We will meet them again at the beach on June 7th. At last year’s event we had almost 200 students attend who experienced the beach for the first time, and we expect to have a similar number this year. The theme for this year’s Kids’ Ocean Day is “Defend the Sea.”We are keeping the aerial art design a secret for now, but we can say that it will be an exciting first in the program’s history!
We are still looking for adult volunteers to help with the event from 8:00am to 1:00pm. If you are interested in signing up to volunteer, please contact Jemma De Leon at jdeleon@cleansd.org.
Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Marketing Intern and USD student, Maddy Blake. Updated 5/3/2012 with new totals!
ILACSD’s Staff ready for the big day!
I Love A Clean San Diego celebrated its 10th annual Creek to Bay Cleanup this past Saturday, April 28th. An amazing 5,800 San Diegans joined together across the county to preserve and beautify their local environment. This year also marks the San Diego Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary, over 1200 of scouts took part in the cleanup to show their commitment to the environment and witness the effects that pollution has on their communities.
Volunteers separated trash and recyclables.
Thanks to all of these fantastic volunteers, San Diego is a much cleaner county. In fact, more than 150,000 pounds of trash and debris were removed from local parks, canyons, creeks, bays and beaches in the span of just three hours! As in years past, cigarette butts and plastic bags were among the most common items found, but this year, some of the most interesting items our volunteers picked up were a rocking horse, a bowling pin and a five-gallon container of pickles.
Daisy scouts pitch in at Creek to Bay.
With a total of 88 cleanup sites, the most we’ve ever had for Creek to Bay, there was somewhere for everyone to go and something for everyone to do. This year, cleanup events were held at five brand new sites in communities we hadn’t reached yet:
Paradise Hills – 40 volunteers filled an entire roll-away dumpster of debris
Spring Valley – 49 volunteers collected over 260 pounds of debris
Santa Ysabel – 20 volunteers removed 200 pounds of debris
Banker’s Hill – 49 volunteers removed 250 pounds of debris
University Heights – 32 volunteers can boast removing 1,200 pounds of debris
You read that right, at the site known as Camelot Canyon (the area beside the 163 at the Vermont St. bridge in University Heights), volunteers picked up 1,200 pounds of debris in that three hour timeframe and unfortunately there is more work to be done in that area. The site was brought to our attention by local University Heights resident, Alison Whitney, who bikes past the canyon on her way to work everyday. With the help of CalTrans and ILACSD, Alison organized this cleanup to make this corner of her community a little more enjoyable for local residents. Click here to read Alison’s interview with KPBS.
Just a sample of some of the debris picked up.
While about 40% of this year’s cleanup sites were in coastal areas, cleaning up inland sites like Camelot Canyon ensures that the trash will not travel down the watershed systemand end up in our waterways, bays and the ocean. Furthermore, by expanding into the five new sites, an additional 2,000 pounds of debris were removed from the environment! After ten years, I Love A Clean San Diego still dedicates itself to county-wide programs and expanding its reach even farther to preserve and ensure a healthier San Diego for everyone.
Volunteers painting over graffiti near Fashion Valley Mall.
Picking up trash is not the only activity our volunteers participated in – many sites included other beautification projects such as graffiti removal, mural painting, native planting, brush maintenance and other general park maintenance.
Don’t forget – if you joined us at Creek to Bay this year, remember to submit your favorite photo to ILACSD for our Sony Volunteers In Action photo contest! Photos are due on May 4, 2012, then the top 3 photos will be posted on our Facebook page, where our fans will vote for their favorite. The winner will be announced on May 18th! Click here for more details.
We want to thank ALL of the volunteers who took time out of their weekend to do more with their morning at the 10th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup! We’d like to give a special thank you to the following volunteer groups who came out to show their love for a clean San Diego:
Local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon Helping Hands Service Day
