Sonoma Coast Clean-Up Days: EVERY DAY

I am writing to request a Sunday clean-up day every week throughout the year to manage the garbage which is collecting along these beaches that we so dearly appreciate.

Yesterday, April 30th 2010, a friend and I went for a drive up the 1 in Sonoma County. It was a beautiful day to get out on the beach and just walk until we were finished walking.

As we drove, we, as last year, noticed closed signs on the majority of State Parks Coastal Access Beaches. This was not a surprise with the issues that have been stewing for a few years now. What was a surprise and rather alarming was at every area we would park outside of the gate and walk-in and when we looked towards the path we were shocked to see the piles of garbage that have collected. Since the “funding” for State Parks has been cut there is no garbage pick up service.

I am writing to request a Sunday clean-up day every week throughout the year to manage the garbage which is collecting along these beaches that we so dearly appreciate.

My thought at this point would be we adopt our favorite beach access on days that are convenient with our schedules and pick up a bag of trash and take it home to your garbage to be collected.

My other thought was more of a gathering of a group. Say on Sunday at 11 am and begin the pick up plan and process - we could meet at Vista Point. We would need folks who would be willing to feed some of the collected garbage into there home trash. This would be a commitment of one bag per person (this one bag being the case if we get a number of participants). Then we would need a few others who would be willing to take the glass and aluminum to the recycling locations throughout the county and collect the funds. The funds would be gathered as a means to donate those monies back to the parks department.

My hope is to collect the funds from the recycling and one by one reopen the gates of the Sonoma County Beaches.

Please contact me at the email address listed below or call me at home 707-922-5883 or better yet, just go to your favorite beach and pick up a bag of garbage (this being my desired goal.

Also, please forward this letter to your friends and family. Or rewrite it and send it on. Please consider getting involved from a place of caring.

You will need to bring a few heavy duty garbage bags, rubber gloves and work gloves (as so you can double glove your hands), if you have a garbage grabber that would be great, a shovel, and anything else you can think of that would be useful in self-protecting.

Thank you sincerely,
Stacie Miller