PORT ANGELES — Registration is now open for the annual Washington Coast Cleanup next Saturday, April 22.
Volunteers can register at Washington Coast Savers website and at a website specifically for only Olympic National Park beaches, the park having taken over registration for park beaches this year.
To register to help clean up any beach outside of Olympic National Park, see https://www.coastsavers.org/ To register for a park beach, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/2023-olympic-national-park-wa-coastal-cleanup-2042699. Choose from one of three areas: Kalaloch, Mora or Ozette.
Every April, thousands of volunteers remove tons of trash from over 300-miles of shoreline in Washington state in the annual Washington Coast Cleanup (WCC). Two other cleanup events are on Fourth of July weekend and on Sept. 16.
In 2022, 1,175 people removed 61,380 pounds of marine debris from beaches during the three annual cleanups.
Much of the event is organized and sponsored by Washington CoastSavers, an alliance of partners and volunteers dedicated to keeping the state’s beaches clean of marine debris through coordinated beach cleanups, education and prevention efforts.
Olympic National Park is one of many alliance partners participating in this annual event. Some of these coastal areas are part of the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness and all park beaches will present unique challenges for participants, organizers said.
For example, motor vehicles are not allowed on any park beach, and all litter or debris must be removed on foot. Camping in the coastal campgrounds of Olympic National Park (Kalaloch, Mora and Ozette) will be free for volunteers beginning Friday evening, April 21 through Sunday morning, April 23. Backcountry permit fees will also be waived for volunteer participants staying overnight on wilderness beaches of Olympic National Park.
At some locations, such as Cape Alava and Sand Point, dedicated volunteers must hike several miles just to reach the beach, then, gather trash and haul it back to the trailhead at Lake Ozette. Besides using garbage bags to clear debris, some volunteers tie multiple buoys or floats to their framed backpacks while others may roll out automobile tires one by one.
“It takes all kinds of ingenuity and lots of sweat to keep the coast clean,” said park Volunteer Coordinator Heather Stephens.
Washington CoastSavers is currently under a NOAA Marine Debris Program grant in which a portion of the marine debris will be recycled and turned back into plastic pellets at the Ocean Legacy Foundationʻs Recycling Depot in British Columbia, according to Megan Juran, Washington CoastSavers coordinator. Anything that can be recycled locally is pulled out by site coordinators, she said.
The other debris will be collected in dumpsters and hauled to a landfill in central Washington (I do not know the name of the landfill). This that can be recycled locally (bottles, cans and the like) are typically pulled out by the site coordinator volunteers.
Hosting a beach cleanup on the day after Earth Day is the Friends of Fort Flagler. The cleanup will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, April 23.
To register, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/earth-day-beach-clean-up-tickets-484076976267.
The park will provide free day passes to any volunteer without one.
