Liz Pugh and Cathy Porter were the friendly Fall 2009 beach captains at the Gearhart Beach Approach. SOLV photo by Dane Osis.

The North Oregon Coast beaches are natural resource treasures that locals sometimes take for granted and visitors ooh and ahh over. But we all get a chance to put them at the top of our priority list this weekend during the 2010 Spring Oregon Beach Cleanup, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 20.

Coastal beaches and parks from the California border to the Columbia River are included in this twice-yearly beach cleanup in an effort administered by SOLV and supported by a vibrant band of volunteers all up and down the coast.

How does it work?

To organize this enormous event, the Oregon Coast is segmented into zones, each with its own zone captain. Simply go online to register for the section of the coast where you would like to work and come ready to clean the beach.

But why do people need to register? Why not just wander down to the beach to help?

Dolores Stover, Zone Captain 3 for Rockaway Beach, explains: “When folks register, it means that they can be covered under the insurance policy that SOLV takes out, just in case they stub their toe or something.”

Registration also allows organizers to keep track of the number of volunteers, give them an orientation, if needed, and issue them the proper equipment.

“We give people gloves, garbage bags, tags or any other supplies that they need,” says Stover, who has been involved in the cleanup for the past seven years. “It’s a great thing for families to do together.”

Volunteer cleanup team

Two-legged and four-legged volunteers help haul trash off of Newport area beaches during the 2009 Fall Beach Cleanup. SOLV photo by Charlie Plybon.”One year, we had 40 people from Nigeria,” Stover continues. “They wanted to see how our beach cleanup worked so they could implement a similar program back in their country.”

“We never know who will show up. It’s a mixture of locals and visitors, but probably more visitors who drive from inland to spend the day at the beach.”

“In Rockaway, we feed them lunch after the cleanup and everyone has a lot of fun,” she adds. “Sometimes we even say, ‘Come back tonight for bingo at the Rockaway Lions Club.'”

A family of volunteers with the Wells Fargo employee team stops to pose for a picture at Cannon Beach in September 2009. SOLV photo.Peter Walczak brings a different group of volunteers to the beach for some very different reasons.

Walczak, a resident biologist for the Neah-Kah-Nie School District, has participated in the coastal cleanup efforts for 15 years and uses it as part of his science education program.

“We have a Natural Resource Club of middle school and high school students that I bring to the beach to help,” he says. “And the younger kids come out during the school day in sort of a pre-emptive cleanup.”

A young volunteer learns how great it feels to protect the beautiful Oregon coastline at Rockaway Beach in September 2009. SOLV photo by Jalene Braun.”Along with the beach cleanup, some of our students do coastal monitoring looking for beach birds or checking out the shore environment. We have a survey and they collect data,” he continues.

“If we have a large group, we divide them up and some might even cut Scotch broom in the state parks or keep an eye out for cord grass in the dunes.”

Beach junk

It appears that the most dangerous beach garbage is plastics of all kinds, which can kill sea creatures by getting caught around their necks or fins. Additionally, smaller bits of colored plastic are lethal when eaten by sea mammals and birds.

Parent sea birds, mistaking plastic for food, feed it to their young. Once a bird’s stomach is filled with indigestible plastic, it dies of starvation.

The SOLV Spring Beach Cleanup will use 30-yard containers from Western Oregon Waste to haul out the trash at North Coast drop sites. Photo by Alex Pajunas.Other beach garbage is just plain ugly.

“Often we find things that have either been thrown off or lost from ships,” says Stover, “like big 4-by-8-by-2 pieces of foam or even bedding.”

“I guess they think, ‘Well, we’re out to sea, it doesn’t matter,’ but the currents bring this garbage to shore.”

Robin Sears, South Coast beach ranger and Zone 11 captain, monitors the volunteers at Horsfall and Bastendorff Beach Parks just north and south of the Coos Bay area.

A team of Wells Fargo employee volunteers from Portland dug out a massive rope from Cannon Beach during the 2009 Fall Beach Cleanup in September. SOLV photo by Bob Langan.”Our biggest problem here is that people come down to the beach with wooden pallets to burn in bonfires,” she shares. “This leaves nails in the sand that are very dangerous.”

“We’ve also found recliners that people have brought to the beach to watch the waves, then burned,” she goes on. “Because of the strong currents here above Bandon, we can get large items on the beach.”

Tires, refrigerators, ice chests, hide-a-beds – these zone captains have seen it all.

“One time we even found a piano on the beach,” says Sears.

Hazardous waste and disposal

Often, beach debris can be dangerous to humans as well.

“We do not allow anyone to pick up dead animals or hypodermic needles,” says Sears.

“We ask them to tag these ‘hazardous waste’ and one of our crew will pick it up and dispose of it properly.”

The coast office of Western Oregon Waste, located in Warrenton near the airport, is one of the waste disposal companies that participates in the cleanup effort. WOW, as it is affectionately called, has provided delivery of the dumpsters, pick-up and disposal of the beach refuse in Clatsop and Tillamook counties for decades.

When Debbie Hamel, WOW administrative specialist, was asked how long they have assisted, she said laughing, “We’ve helped out forever – I don’t even know if our records go back that far.”

Hamel, 17 years on the job, continues, “Our donated services for the 2009 spring and fall cleanups was $3,100 and our tonnage was 8.28.”

The dumpsters, either 20 or 30 yards in volume, are stored in Gearhart; so her drivers do a lot of traveling to get them into place.

Everybody’s beach

Shelley Parker, Zone 3 captain for Nehalem and Manzanita, says, “We get a combination of locals and visitors that help out, but probably more visitors.”

“A lot of people drive in from Portland because they get two benefits,” she continues. “They get to spend time at the beach and they get to help out with the cleanup.”

In recognition of the importance of beaches, Oregon has racked up many beach “firsts.” The first all-volunteer beach cleanup in the nation took place in Oregon in 1984. Since then, volunteer beach cleanups have spread to all 50 states and nearly 100 countries around the globe.

In 1966, Oregon governor Tom McCall created legislation that made everything up to 16 feet elevation from sea level open to public access. This was called the “Oregon Beach Bill,” and became a model for other coastal regions.

Living near the ocean is the dream of many people, and North Coast residents are living that dream. It might be time to give a little gratitude and help keep our beaches clean.