They Make Us Pick Up Trash!

Can you believe that?!

Once a week, depending on low tide, we get to are told to get a UTV (Utility Vehicle) and go out on the spit and pick up trash!

So, we load up all our stuff (binoculars, camera, snacks, diet coke, backpack for carrying rocks and things)  oops - I mean (trash bags, trash pickers, shovel) and head out to the spit where we are forced to endure one of the prettiest beach’s I have ever seen the trashy beach. 

It’s a very lonely job but we soldier on.  Through the sandy beaches with not even a foot print of another human. 

Past cute big scary mammals such as harbor seals:

As we stop to take lots and lots of pictures for just a moment to catch our breath from our arduous tasks, we wonder why we, the volunteers, have been assigned this momentous task of trash picking.

Western Grebe

Common Merganser

Alas, among the bull kelp, we find the object of our quest:

Trash.  Washed up from the sea.

Mostly we find rope attached to crab traps or buoys and tangled up in bull kelp.

But seriously, this place is awesome.  It looks like we’ve picked up a lot of trash on this outing but this beach is very clean compared to a lot of beaches we’ve been on in Texas and Florida.  It seems like everyone that walks out here picks up trash. We’ve had people throw trash they have picked up into our cart as we drive by.

So far, this is probably the most enjoyable “job” we’ve been assigned.  We’ve got the ocean, the sand, and we feel like we are making a much needed contribution to the refuge.

Teri.