Today’s post comes from ILACSD’s Outreach Intern, Taylor!
Here in the I Love A Clean San Diego office, we’re fresh off the excitement and success of Coastal Cleanup Day, but we’re also gearing up for our next series of events, the 3rd annual Tijuana River Action Month (TRAM) Cleanups. TRAM is a bi-national effort that takes place down near the border; there will be cleanups on both sides of the border during this month, how cool is that!
ILACSD, along with the Tijuana River Action Network (TRAN) and the help of many other invaluable partners, have two events scheduled during the month of October, one on October 6th at Effie May Trail and one on October 20th near Dairy Mart Road and Camino de la Plaza, both along the notoriously messy Tijuana Watershed. As usual, ILACSD will be bringing all the necessary supplies, but the BYOB (bring your own bucket) policy is still in full swing!
Although the TRAM cleanups aren’t our biggest events of the year, (it’s hard to beat 7,200 volunteers for Coastal Cleanup Day!) they are maybe the most important. The Tijuana Watershed is consistently filled with tons of trash, from plastic debris like food containers, bleach bottles, and plastic utensils, to the most consistently found item, tires.
You may be asking why October has been chosen for the honor of being christened Tijuana River Action Month and the answer is super simple, rain! TRAN wants to get these areas cleaned up before the winter rains come to San Diego and send all of the trash into our beautiful Pacific Ocean. If not for the hard work of ILACSD’s volunteers, all of those plastics, pieces of Styrofoam and tires would go straight into the ocean, our backyard and playground!
As you can see from the pictures taken just a few weeks ago at the October 20th site, this area desperately needs our help and our hands! Typically, volunteers are more hesitant to go down near the border to participate in a cleanup because of the distance and many other factors. Nevertheless, it’s because of these challenges that this area needs the most help. Last year at these two events, 63,476 pounds of trash and 351 tires were removed; if this much good was done last year with a little over 2,500 volunteers, think of all the good we could do this year if we had even more helping hands!
While cleaning up the Tijuana Watershed is the star of the day, that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing to do while down at the border on October 6th or the 20th. For example, on October 6th, the Audubon Society and REI will be leading nature walks through the different trails throughout Effie May Trail. Then on the 20th, ILACSD along with Think Blue, the City of Sand Diego’s storm water pollution prevention division, will be stenciling storm drains near our Dairy Mart Road site to let people know that anything this put down the drains here go straight into the ocean. Finally, as a reward to our volunteers after each TRAM event there will be a raffle of fabulous prizes! I hope you decide to come out to one of the TRAM events to give the Tijuana Watershed some much need TLC!
Click here to find more information and sign up for these cleanup events.
