Huge Community Effort put forth for the 2008 Resurrection Bay Beach & Watershed Cleanup:

RBCA (Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance) would like to extend a big thank you to all the community members who helped pull off the biggest group cleanup to date for the Resurrection Bay Beaches and Watershed on May 17.

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Local volunteers and Royal Celebrity Tour employees, totaling 132 people, worked diligently to take on the watershed component of the cleanup. The areas cleaned up included the 4th of July Beach area, the Spring Creek beach area, all of the Exit Glacier pull-offs, along the bike path (from the harbor turn off out to Bear Creek Fire Dept.), the Grouse lake pull-off, all the highway pull-offs up to the Primrose trailhead, and a major effort on the Snow River at the Mile 14 “shooting range”.

 

 

Items found in the watershed included:

  • Eleven 5 gal. buckets of nails (left from pallet fires)

  • Over 1500 brass shells left at the “shooting range”

  • Over 1500 shotgun casings left at the “shooting range”

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  • 115 large garbage bags of assorted trash (including “shot up” outdated fire extinguishers and television sets)

     

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A total of 18 volunteers went out on the Bay in three boats to reach the Fox Island Spit, Thumb cove, and Day harbor (Driftwood bay) areas. Fortunately, the group found a much lower volume of trash this year compared to the previous years. We’re hoping this will be a continued trend with future cleanups. They were able to dispose of items such as:

  • Large commercial poly fishing nets

  • Mooring buoys

  • Over 30 large garbage bags of assorted trash – mostly various plastics

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In addition to all the local volunteers RBCA would like to thank these partners for their commendable efforts:

  • Royal Celebrity Tours for volunteering three coaches and many employee hours.

  • AK Sea Life Center for volunteering two landing crafts and many helping hands.

  • John Maniscalco for volunteering his vessel.

  • Matt Gray for volunteering his vessel.

  • Aquatec water taxi for volunteering to haul excess trash off the beaches.

  • Christo’s Pizza Palace for donating all the pizzas at the after clean-up dinner.

  • Resurrection Bay Coffee House for hosting the dinner.

  • Alaska Brewing Company for its generous support through the coastal CODE grant.

The huge expanse of area covered this year would not have been possible without the efforts all of these partners.

 

We hope to see you next May at the 2009 Cleanup!

Tim Johnson- cleanup coordinator with RBCA