This Saturday, September 20th, the LCWC, coordinating efforts with similar organizations around the state, is sponsoring the Great Sierra Clean Up along Laguna Creek. Similar clean ups will be occurring up and down the state. Why are so many people involved in this event, you might wonder?
Here are two good reasons:
Trash is an eye-sore. When you are out riding your bike or walking your dog, you are usually looking to get away from the responsibilities of home and work and relax. Or maybe you use the trails of Laguna Creek to power walk or jog to get some exercise or train for an event. When you see trash such as tires, plastic bags, and other kinds of trash around, it is a reminder that you really aren’t too far from busy city life. A bummer.
Trash harms fish and wildlife. That trash in Laguna Creek not only can harm our local aquatic life but it can also make its way to the ocean because Laguna Creek drains into the Sacramento River and out to San Francisco Bay. Too far for a plastic bag to travel?? Not really. There is a patch of plastic bags and similar trash miles wide in the middle of the Pacific Ocean known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The Garbage Patch is full of plastics and other marine debris (this is one of the reasons for the proposed ban on the use of plastic bags at the grocery store…a first for the nation if the Governor signs it by September 30!). This stuff comes from places like Elk Grove and Stockton and cities up and down the state. These bags degrade into small bits, are ingested by marine life such as seals and fish, and often end up killing these animals. By getting these bags and other trash out of the streams and creeks that drain into the ocean, we can reduce the size of the Garbage Patch and reduce mortality of marine life, and make our own ‘backyard’ more pleasant.
Two good reasons to make it to the Clean Up on Saturday. For more information, Click Here!
And just for fun, here is a Litter Patrol vigilante in Russia!