Check out what Surfrider Ventura County was up to this month at our beach cleanups! 

If you heard the thunder on the morning of July 13, it was possibly from our drenched (but awesome) volunteers picking up beach trash, removing agricultural hosing, sweeping up fireworks debris, and removing buoys and fishing line from the Rincon Parkway—all items that would snag or harm marine wildlife in the Santa Barbara Channel.

Sixteen volunteers, recruited in part by Mrs. Emily Hunt, Foothill Technology High School’s AP Environmental Science teacher, showed up in the drizzle and rain on the Saturday morning to keep our beaches and ocean clean and healthy. The amazing volunteers picked up 235 pounds of trash, 40 of which was shredded paper firework debris.

To keep the Rincon Parkway free of plastic pollution, plastic sand toys, clothing and food trash, help your friends and visitors to our coast remember, “If it doesn't come from the ocean, it does not get left on the beach.”

Join us at RRP the second Saturday of every month! For questions, please email rrp@ventura.surfrider.org. 

1 Photo Credits: Marie Martin

2 Photo Credits: Marie Martin

3 Photo Credits: Marie Martin

4 Photo Credits: Marie Martin

5 Photo Credits: Marie Martin

This month at Ormond, our 33 amazing volunteers joined us at the end of Perkins Road in Oxnard to clean up the waterway and wetlands! Even with a high tide and lots of overgrowth limiting our access, our volunteers removed 373 pounds of trash from the area. Special thanks to all the Moorpark College students and National Charity League Ventura County Chapter volunteers that joined us this month! 

What makes the end of Perkins Road an important location for our cleanup efforts? Even though it’s not on the sand, our Perkins location allows us to remove trash from two key areas: the waterways that outfall to Ormond lagoon and the north side of the lagoon. By targeting these areas, we catch the trash before it ends up on the beach and in the ocean.

See you next third Saturday at Ormond! 

On June 27th, 73 community volunteers removed 148 pounds of trash and recycling from the Ventura Promenade and beach, including about 2500 cigarette butts. Many thanks to them and the 7 core volunteers who helped run this cleanup! 

Join us at C Street every fourth Saturday of the month! 

"Dirtiest Beach Day of the Year" Post 4th of July Cleanup - July 7th

The Sunday following the Fourth of July, we took to the sand to pick-up all the post-holiday litter. Even though we had a couple of cleanups at C Street the weeks prior (including a regular C-Street cleanup just two weeks before), our 45 dedicated volunteers were still able to remove over 304 pounds of trash from the beach and promenade! 

July 5th has been coined the “Dirtiest Beach Day of the Year” due to all the trash and litter leftover by beach-goers celebrating the 4th. Surfrider VC felt a need to team up with chapters across the country to target this issue. Overall, Surfrider hosted over 50 cleanups across 13 states and broke records for the amount of trash picked up—becoming the largest nationally coordinated beach cleanup effort in Surfrider’s 40 year history. Check out the video recap below. 

We were stoked by the turnout and cannot thank our volunteers enough for coming out over the holiday weekend to make a difference for our beaches and oceans. We’ll definitely be back again next year! 

Private Beach Cleanup with National Charity League - July 14th

Thank you to the National Charity League Santa Clarita Valley Chapter for making the trek out to C Street for a private cleanup on July 14th! Even in the midst of a busy cleanup season for C Street, the 27 NCL members picked up over 38 pounds of trash—mostly including microplastics, fragments, and cigarette butts. 

We are excited to be teaming up with NCL’s Santa Clarita Valley Chapter. Their volunteers were knowledgeable about how trash travels down the watershed to the beach, even from inland areas. They frequently volunteer at Santa Clara River cleanups in their area to help mitigate this issue, and saw the need to partner with us to help make a difference at our beaches.

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