 Pitch in for California Coastal Cleanup Day! Cleanup and restoration activities will be happening in Pacifica on Sept. 18 because Fog Fest will be coinciding with the National Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 25. Together we can keep our parks, neighborhoods, and shorelines clean, safe, and beautiful for everyone. 1. Choose a Site Groups please register at
2. Download & Complete the Waiver Form And you're ready to go. Thank you! Thank you to our sponsors: Recology of the Coast, City of Pacifica, Pedro Point Surf Club. North Coast County Water District, Pacifica Tribune, San Mateo County Water Pollution Prevention Program. Excellent Life of a Plastic Bag Mockumentary  Montara Beach Event  It was an honor to participate in the Hands Across the Sand event in Montara on Saturday, June 26th, and a joy to stand with so many of you and for the rest of you who could not make it. Stand proud my friends it was a powerful day that is certain to bear many fruits in the future. Thank you to Ian Butler for the video of the event. Now you can all be there with us! What a day for humanity. Also check out the home web page for the Hands event. Photos from around the world will bring tears to your eyes and hearten your soul. What an incredible journey it was for the 3 who paddle surfed from Mavericks. It was inspiring and educational to talk with them after our event. Check it out on the video. They were brave and inspired guys. Joao our friend from Mavericks paddling for Save the Waves! Right on! For more info on the entire event go to: Businesses Give Back at Pacifica Beaches Thank you Life Technologies, Genentech and McKesson for coming to Pacifica to clean Sharp Park and Linda Mar and restore habitat at Linda Mar.  Where the PBC came from: The Jeri Flinn Story -
What a difference you made on Earth Day this year! Congratulations and THANK YOU to all Volunteers, sponsors, groups, leaders, and site captains! Oldest volunteer - 94. Youngest - under 1 Photos from Earth Day, April 22, 2010 There's one of YOU in here somewhere! Check out the Earth Day highlight video: http://www.pacificariptide.com/pacifica_riptide/pacificas_environmental_family/ Ian Butler is a PBC member who has adopted the Secret Waterfall since 2007, a storm drain that pours runoff filled with garbage out onto the beach north of the now famous Esplanade eroding bluff. Click the link below for the KTVU report.
 Pacifica's "Secret Waterfall" of garbage runoff
Beautifully produced video by Ian Butler, long-time Paciifca Beach Coalition activist:
Volunteers brighten foggy morning for Coastal Cleanup Day
They were working as one, for the second time this year. Even as plastic bags, food wrappers, and cigarette butts appeared everywhere and the fog covered them with droplets they continued. Nearly 1300 volunteers combed the city's beaches, bluffs, streets, and creeks on Sept. 19th for California 's largest volunteer event in history. They removed over 30,000 cigarette butts and nearly that many discarded, scattered candy/food wrappers. One team employed a 4 wheel drive truck to pull a heavy axle from Big Inch Creek. Thirty volunteers retrieved hundreds of tennis balls from San Pedro Creekalong with bottles and cans left there or washed there from the storm drains. Other volunteers teamed up to load heavy items like a cement truck pump, three foot diameter rusted culverts, tv's, a screen door, pallets, shopping carts, and bundles from a homeless encampment. And as volunteers have been doing for the past 11 years and in force since 2005, they looked for the little things that are most easily ingested by wildlife, birds and fish. And they counted. Over and over they counted the number of cigarette butts, fishing line, bottle tops, plastic wrappers, car parts, construction debris and more so that when they were through, we all could learn what is escaping into the environment and killing the ocean from our town of Pacifica .
After three hours of working at 30 sites from all corners of Pacifica , volunteers converged to Sharp Park beach and picnic area. They stood and sat and drummed to the past; when everything was biodegradable and there was no litter, and for a cleaner future; when we all understand the harms of toxins and debris in our environment and change our ways. They talked to each other and shared their stories on a special day with a special energy that gives us hope for the future.
When the 1300 volunteers were done in Pacifica the dumpster overflowed with 3 tons of debris for the second time in one year (Earth Day cleanup netted a 20 yard dumpster too) and Pacifica 's streets beaches, bluffs, and creeks were much safer more beautiful places. With your help and daily stewardship, at least 1300 people hope they will stay that way. On Earth Day 2010 these same volunteers (and many more) will be back out there in force working through the wind and fog to clean our city again. They will be there again because they know that when all are involved, working side by side with our neighbors and friends to right the wrongs of a world that is killing the ocean with pollution, we will no longer be scouring for litter or counting thousands of cigarette butts. Instead we will be growing food and native plants and we will be even happier than the 1300 people were from Coastal Cleanup Day 2009.
Special thanks to the Pacifica Beach Coalition members and its organizing committee; to the site captains, group leaders and volunteers of Coastal Cleanup Day 2009; to the City of Pacifica, Council members, PBR and Public Works Dept.; to Coastside Scavenger, Extreme Pizza, Safeway; to the refreshment and record keeping team; the San Mateo Pollution Prevention Program and California Coastal Commission.
California Coastal Cleanup Day Success! (click for full story)
• 1275 volunteers • 5,937 pounds of litter • 1,101 pounds of recycling • 20 Yard dumpster - overflowing with trash • 30 Pacifica sites Beaches and Bluffs from Mussel Rock to Pedro Point, Big Inch, Calera, Milagra, Salada, San Pedro Creeks Roberts Road, Pedro Terrace, Fassler, Hwy 1, Fairway, Palmetto, Westline, Hickey, West Sharp Park and more streets
• Drum Circle, Pizza, Watermelon, friends, family, and lifted spirits 1 PROUD DAY for Pacifica!
Click for the day captured in pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/PickItUpPacifica/CoastalCleanup2009Click for CCCD articles in the Pacifica Tribune:
Earth Day 2010 will be on April 24th
Mark your calendar - Plan your project!
 Thank you Sunesis for helping our beaches and learning about litter along the way!
Mission Statement The Pacifica Beach Coalition is dedicated to preserving coastal habitats and its wildlife by ending litter on Pacifica's beaches through advocacy, education, community building and citizen action. The Pacifica Beach Coalition is all about you. There are over 39,000 residents in Pacifica. 2700 volunteers and 55 businesses joined in Earth Day and California Coastal Cleanup events in 2008 removing over 15,000 pounds of litter and recycles from our beaches, streets, bluffs and parks. Together we represent a powerful force for positive change. By picking up litter, restoring habitat, or making small changes in our lives we can help reduce the climate crisis by protecting the health of the ocean. Globally? We are creating a model community of citizens who protect wildlife by eliminating litter, reducing storm water pollution, and protecting our beaches, creeks, and storm drains through citizen action. Our intent is to make changes in our community and guide other communities in the Bay Area, California, USA and the world to do the same. We already have partners joining our Earth Day events in Half Moon Bay, Daly City and San Mateo. How can I join the Pacifica Beach Coalition? Pacifica Beach Coalition
601 Beaumont Blvd.
Pacifica, CA 94044
Membership fees are:
General $10, Children $5, Contributing or family $25, Business $100
We meet one Tuesday each month at the Pacifica Library on Hilton at 7 pm. Let us know if you are interested in beach clean-ups, marine ecology education, or Pacifica State Beach facilities and if you would like to be informed of beach cleanups or meetings via e-mail.
Can I join the Beach Cleanup Committee? Yes! Come to our monthly meetings -- see the calendar for dates. Students joining the Pacifica Beach Coalition
The Pacifica Beach Coalition welcomes students into the Coalition to become liaisons to their schools.
It is our hope for students from all of the schools to join together to plan activities and projects that will educate and engage students within their schools to take action to improve the health of the ocean and improve habitat for wildlife. To sign up:
Info needed: Name- first and last, parents name, phone number, email address, grade level, school
The Urgency of Our Cause
Be a Part of Something Special
We promise not to sell your information or inundate your Inbox. Our goal is to help you... Save Wildlife, Sustain Your Planet, Sustain Your Home and Sustain Yourself. | Some great solutions to what we can do for the oil spill 10 more things you can do to help the gulf coast Earth Day 2010 Results • 5780
Volunteers • 9679 LBS of Trash • 1313 LBS of Recycle • 3730 LBS of Green Waste By
the numbers...
• 1 Congressional Record by Jackie Speier
• 10 Schools hosted school wide cleanups
• 16 trees planted
• 85 Locations in Pacifica, Daly City, Montara, Half Moon Bay,
and Princeton • 102 Businesses joined the cleanup
• 150 native plants planted
• 500 volunteers at the celebration
• 1000 Scotch Broom removed
• 1300 pounds of recycling
• 3000 students received the Earth Hero Button
• 3700 students participated in a School Wide
Cleanup and signed the Earth Hero Pledge • 3700 pounds of greenwaste
• 5780 volunteers became Earth Heroes
• 9700 pounds of trash
One community united for a single cause! Earth Day 2009 Results
Want to get in touch with PBC members on upcoming projects? Have a comment about a recent PBC event? PBC Facebook Page
Interested in reducing your plastic footprint? Here's a great resource: http://www.thewatershedproject.org/tenways.html Pacifica teens gain national notoriety for their eco-efforts Two Pacifica teen groups have been featured on a national TV show called Eco Company. The other is about Lauren Weber and her Million Trees Project through Belmont 4-H. This group has participated in Pacifica Beach Coalition's Earth Day clean up program for the past 3 years.  Click link for more Eco-Company TV spots featuring eco-active teens around the country including around the San Francisco Bay Area. http://eco-company.tv/taxonomy/term/12 When you're inspired to cleanup at the beach or other site on your own, we'd like to hear from you. The numbers through organized events of the Pacifica Beach Coalition are already impressive (see "Cleanup Statistics" under Navigation). Pacifica has led the way for the rest of the Coastside in its environment-restoring program. We'd like to add and document your efforts with this downloadable Trash Collection Report Form. Please fill it out and email it to PickitupPacifica@gmail.com Blue Marble
Have you received your blue marble yet?
 Join the Pacifica Beach Coalition in paying it forward and bringing attention to the plight of the ocean by sharing blue marbles with people committing random acts of ocean kindness like picking up litter, composting, recycling, restoring native habitat, conserving water.
The Blue Marble, is a famous photograph taken of the Earth by astronauts on December 7, 1972. It is likely the most widely distributed photographic image in existence. The image is one of the few to show a fully illuminated Earth, as the astronauts had the Sun behind them when they took the image. To the astronauts, Earth had the appearance of a glass marble (hence the name, Blue Marble). When you get a marble, pass it along within 24 hours with the message to do the same...around and around the blue marbles will go...around the big Blue Marble, our ocean planet.
It's a simple idea: commit a random act of ocean kindness by sharing a blue marble forward with someone doing good things for our blue planet and tell them to do the same. For more info go to: www.bluemarbles.org
Earth Day ... cont... You cleaned every corner of Pacifica, most major streets and every beach and bluff! Volunteers down the coast joined us and cleaned 5 beaches in Montara, Princeton, and Half Moon Bay and Pilarcitos creek .
Five schools had school wide cleanup and gardening events. Terra Nova Interact Club organized a green week teaching about environmental issues with activities each day. There were five habitat restoration projects including tree planting at Frontierland Park, iceplant removal at Linda Mar Beach and weeding at Rockaway Beach. There were plenty of gardening events happening: Pacifica Gardens had composting demos, Sunflower planting and double-digging demonstrations. Most of the schools had gardening, weeding, trimming, and planting too!
Over 50 businesses joined again this year, with many of the businesses from last year informing us that they now cleanup daily or at least weekly. 90 Community Groups/families joined together for projects.
PCT - Channel 26 did an amazing job filming the event. Steve Brown, Bob Twigg and Sharron Walker produced a brilliant video documenting your work. Many of you are the Earth Day stars for the Pacifica Currents - Earth Day 2009 video which will be shown soon on PCT channel 26. If you would like to have a house or community group party to show the video, the Pacifica Beach Coalition / PCT will gladly share a copy with you.  Does your fish come from a farm? And even more importantly, what does that mean? Find out the answer to this, and more, when you test your fish knowledge by playing our new Go, Fish! game. For everyone who plays, $1 will get donated to our work to end overfishing once and for all. Go, Fish! is all about building support for our ocean — and the wildlife, people, and economies that depend on it — while raising awareness about the ins and outs of the fishing industry. You can get started here.
EARTH DAY 2008 Highlights  Sunset Ridge cleans up entire school yard
What could be more fun than an
Easter Egg hunt? To the students of Sunset Ridge Elementary school, a
litter pickup in April for Earth Day was the answer. At least it appeared
that way on Wednesday, April 9th when the entire school participated in the
Pacifica Beach Coalition's Earth Day '08 event by dividing the school yard into
sections for each grade level to work on. For many of the classes
it looked like a PE exercise with the students running back and forth to find
the litter and place it in the bag. Smiles, pride, and excitement were on
all of the faces.
OCEAN SHORE SCHOOL 250 students and 25 adults celebrated the greenhouse opening on Monday, April 7th at Ocean Shore School with an Earth Day activity day. All the kids got a slice of organic apple and a chance to tour the garden - worm bin, compost bins, raised beds with vegetables, greenhouse with seedlings and warm-weather plants, herb garden, butterfly garden and orchard. The kids had a chance to trowel dirt into a new raised bed and amend the soil with worm compost. The adults participated in a celebration to recognize the value of the greenhouse to the students, the school and the community, as well as to thank RecycleWorks for their generous greenhouse grant. On Sunday, April 5th, 25 parents and students worked in the school yard to remove 125 pounds of litter. They also weeded, mowed grass, and beautified the garden and school grounds for Earth Day. Ocean Shore parents and students have planted all native plants in the school ground to reduce water usage, enhance native habitat, and to show students and parents a more sustainable way to live harmoniously with nature. The school ground gardens are a pride for all of Pacifica and a model to the school district and community on how to utilize nature and reduce costs for garden maintenance. GGNRA Parks Conservancy Milagra Ridge Habitat Restoration
By Christina Crooker Thirteen people removed 500 Monterey pine saplings that were invading mission blue butterfly habitat at Milagra Ridge, part of the GGNRA. They then went on an interpretive walk about the mission blue and wildflowers native to Milagra Ridge and then joined the Celebration event at Sharp Park.
Pacifica and Belmont 4-H Clubs Despite 45mph winds and cold temps, 30 volunteers join to clean Mussel Rock area and the adjoining bluff collecting an estimated 600 pounds of litter and recycles
Public Works and Waste Water Treatment plant staff donates time to clean up Ian’s Secret waterfall near Mussel Rock. According to Public Works staff member, Aron Clark, “the more miserable, the more memorable” and the 45mph winds and high surf on Saturday, April 19th made for a very memorable Day of Action in Pacifica for Earth Day. Seven volunteers from Pacifica’s Public Works and Waste Water Treatment Plant belayed down the cliff to the “Secret Waterfall” just south of Mussel Rock. Once there, they cut rebar that had been sticking out of the dumped concrete, scooped out hundreds of cigarette butts from an eddy, and collected 100 pounds of litter at the base of the waterfall. Because the high surf blocked access from the beach, all debris was pulled up the cliff by ropes and hauled away. Safeway trees trimmed by resident According to one Pacifica resident, “I have been walking by the trees along the Safeway parking lot for a few months and wanted to help shape them for appearance and also to keep people from throwing garbage there. Earth day gave me that opportunity. A gentleman who helped me works at the recycle van at that parking lot and two other persons, waiting for the bus helped me drag some of the branches to the pile. Thanks for organizing this Earth Day”.
Jim Poket It was cold and blustery when 11 members of the Coastside Masonic Lodge and the Career Development Council Advisory Board met at the Esplanade Bluffs to fill out waivers and collect supplies. We were assembled to give back to the Earth by taking back the refuse that inconsiderate humans had deposited on the dunes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Spirits were lifted and bodies warmed as the combined Team traversed from South to North removing everything from cigarette butts and toilet paper to discarded table legs. After the dunes had been returned to their natural state, the western curb of Esplanade received the same treatment. The Team regrouped and headed off to Manor 7-11 to clean the area from Ocean Shore School's southern edge to Manor Drive. The staff at 7-11 were so appreciative of the Team's efforts that they treated each member to a hot drink. After collecting 22 bags of garbage the Team traveled to Sharp Park Beach to attend the celebratory event and were fed a delicious lunch of organic salad, warm macaroni and cheese and sandwiches while listening to Ian Butler and numerous dignitaries. After receiving certificates, which will hang proudly at the Coastside Masonic Lodge and PeninsulaWorks in Daly City, we left Sharp Park Beach knowing we had made a difference. Vows were made to return next year, along with silent dreams that it would be warmer when we again met to show our appreciation to the Earth.
Cabrillo School --- by Lauri Vreeland Cabrillo
School celebrated their first ever Earth Day event with a school wide cleanup
and organic seedling sale. Although many Cabrillo students and parents were
participating in other Earth Day clean-ups, such as the "Yes on 'N'",
they still had 25 participants!
55 Businesses including 5 shopping centers Join Cleanup Efforts Taco Bell in Manor and Linda Mar had staff cleanup all around their business.
Vista Mar Residents join together to prune and maintain their median strip, trimming about 600 pounds of green waste and collecting 5 bags of recycles and litter. Site organizer Sandy Parry reports that there was much less litter this year than last when they collected 8 bags of trash.
The Livability Project and San Mateo Master Composters teamed up to have a garden dig and compost building activity at the new Pacifica Garden behind Linda Mar School. Approximately 25 volunteers joined in the work tilling the soil, sheet composting, and starting a compost and worm bin. The Master Composters then helped collect all of the compostables from the no-waste Celebration event.
Earth Day Pacifica goes down the coast. After hearing about the work of the Pacifica Beach Coalition for Earth Day, Mavericks Surf Venture joined in and organized a cleanup at Mavericks beach, parking lot, and adjoining wetlands. Surfrider Foundation took on Poplar Beach in Half Moon Bay and a NDNU student organized a cleanup at her university.
How nice will it be to have the entire Bay Area cleaned up every Earth Day … how about every day??? Pacifica Adopt-A-Beach Program The Pacifica Beach Coalition, in partnership with the California Coastal Commission, has launched the Pacifica Adopt-A-Beach program. The program is a great way for your organization, business, school, or community group to take action and help keep our beaches clean. Groups can choose any of the 5 beaches in Pacifica or Mussel Rock to adopt. Participants make a commitment to cleaning their beach at least three times a year, although school groups can fulfill their obligation with a single cleanup. Groups are encouraged to re-adopt at the end of the year. The Adopt-A-Beach program fosters feelings of pride and ownership as volunteers begin to care for "their" beach. The Pacifica Beach Coalition supplies all cleanup equipment and training for the cleanups. A Pacifica Beach Coalition volunteer will provide your group with a brief marine debris presentation prior to your first cleanup. For more information on the Adopt-A-Beach program please contact Lynn Adams at 650-355-1668 or PickItUpPacifica@gmail.com California Coastal Commission cleanup opportunities
Here's what they're doing in Santa Cruz.
http://saveourshores.org/
 Earth Day - Pacifica 2007 had 600 volunteers, 45 community groups and 13 businesses who collected 12,000 pounds of litter/recycles and 4,000 pounds of greenwaste from 6 beaches, 5 creeks, 20 streets and 40 sites in just 2 hours.
 Partnership for a Safe and Healthy Pacifica – 10 High school students and adults join together to honor two students killed in a drunk driving accident by cleaning the street and creek area near the memorial site. When the event was over, the organizer of this site and an aunt to one of the boys jumped in my arms and proclaimed that this was the best thing the group had ever done and that the experience was unbelievable! For her, it was indescribably powerful in a very healing way to do something for the earth to honor two special kids taken too soon.
 Ingrid B. Lacey Middle School - Over 50 students and 15 adults show up and removed litter from all of West Sharp Park, a 55 block residential area adjacent to their school and Sharp Park Beach before heading to the beach to help volunteers there. Total litter removed from the beach and street area = 2055 pounds |
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Sites you may also be interested inOCEAN NEWS Kick the plastic bottled water habit Site devoted to cigarette litter http://www.cigarettelitter.org/Interesting litter facts Top 10 tips for preventing litter Video on the Algalita Research Project: The Extent of Plastic Debris in the Oceans Video on "Garbage Island", the expanse of Pacific Ocean thick with toxic debris Chicago Tribune article on cigarette debris |
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