SOLVE Beach Cleanup to be Rescheduled REEDSPORT — Heavy winds prevented volunteers from hitting Oregon’s beaches during the Fall Beach Cleanup, but volunteers did help clean more than 50 inland sites. SOLVE Executive Director Maureen Fisher said they were advised by the National Weather Service there could be 65- to 70-mph winds Saturday. There were also flood warnings on parts of U.S. Highway 101. “We just decided that the safety of the volunteers is the most important thing,” she said. “We contacted all of our beach captains and all of our zone captains and said, ‘We’re going to end up rescheduling the 47 events that we had planned for the Oregon coast.’” They also contacted as many of the volunteers who signed up for beach cleanup as they could and invited them to inland areas to work. SOLVE estimated 1,282 volunteers showed up at Saturday’s riverside cleanup. There were more than 50 projects at inland sites ranging from Hood River to Medford. SOLVE estimated 421 trees were planted in parks, on school grounds and in natural areas. It’s estimated volunteers removed 25,068 pounds of mixed waste and recyclable materials from neighborhoods and natural areas and removed 82,292 square feet of invasive non-native vegetation. That’s without touching the ocean beaches. The beaches, however, still need a cleanup. Back in March, 4,080 volunteers removed 52,477 pounds of debris from Oregon’s beaches. It was expected at least that many would come out for the fall cleanup. Fisher said there are some options. “We will be reaching out; and are currently reaching out; to all 47 of those other sites,” she said, “and we will reschedule those dates. There’s a portion of the volunteers who pre-registered for specific sites along the coast, so we will get those re-scheduled and get back to all the volunteers, letting them know the date and the time.” The information will also be posted at the group’s website, solveoregon.org. “The bad news is,” said Fisher, “a lot of people have been looking forward to coming out and doing this. She also looked on the “positive” side. “The good news is,” she continued, “after this storm we’ll have even more trash and debris to clean up.” Fisher says she doesn’t think an event can be scheduled as early as this weekend. “We won’t end up doing the entire coast all in one day,” she said. “I just don’t think we’ll be able to pull that together, with so many different people involved with each of the sites and the volunteers and the groups and the schools and even the debris haulers that we had volunteering to help us. To try to get them all another date in the next month, with 47 different sites, would be probably be next to impossible. So, we’ll probably do 10 or 12 sites one weekend and another 10 or 12 the next weekend. That’s the scheduling and coordination that we’re working on right now.” Fisher added that anytime volunteers want to clean up Oregon’s beaches, SOLVE will gladly support those efforts. According to a news release “SOLVE is a statewide non-profit organization that brings people together to improve the environment and build a legacy of stewardship. Over four decades, the organization has grown from a small, grassroots group to a national model for volunteer environmental action. Today, SOLVE mobilizes and trains tens of thousands of volunteers across Oregon to clean up our beaches and rivers, and restore watersheds. Visit solveoregon.org for more information.” Source: the world
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 06:39:52 +0000
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