Ahead of more rain and runoff, volunteers clean up trash by Santa Barbara area beaches

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The next stop for trash on beaches or creeks along the Central Coast will be the ocean if clean up efforts don't take place. A group of active volunteers has been out to do all it can prior to the next round of rain.

Tidy Seas, a non-profit that started as a group of friends and has now grown with an array of participants, bagged up buckets of trash Sunday around Mission Creek east of Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara.

It has also been actively working in areas such as East Beach, Leadbetter Beach, the Funk Zone and Hendry's Beach.

Ryan Wong is a co-founder of Tidy Seas. "So my dream was to just do the dirty work, pick up trash and do it consistently." 

The Mission Creek area was very important with the solid runoff that location gets after rain storms. The origin of the creek is above Mission Canyon and the creek winds through the city including areas like Oak Park and the westside of downtown. It can be loaded with a variety of items from the mixed use area and homeless camps.

The haul Sunday included food cartons, shoes, a soccer ball, part of a lobster trap, cigarette butts, and alcohol bottles.

Joining the effort were employees of Deckers Brand shoes (Goleta) and staff members from MOXI (The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation) nearby. "Once they hear about us and see the work, you know, that work speaks for itself. And they just want to be a part of it. It's been great because we need the help."

Some of the buckets have been donated by Sherwin Williams paint store and pickers were provided by the City of Santa Barbara. Hillary Allen is with the city's Sustainability division and Wong says, "she has been amazing. She donated all the pickers. She makes sure we have gloves, trash bags, and then, also helps us get rid of trash at the end of the cleanup as well. So the city has been a huge help."

A regular walker and resident in the beach area, Terry Quinn said, "trash just accumulates for a bunch of different reasons. And, we have to get rid of it. I don't think we can just rely on the city all the time to do this kind of stuff. So I actually volunteer myself."

Tidy Seas brings in large hauls of trash each time the group goes out. "We had 36 cleanups last year.      Everybody puts the work in, and, you know, it makes our community a better place, but it also brings people together. So we just want to get as big as possible to make the biggest impact we can."

At the end of the outing, donated prizes are also  given out sometimes with a bingo style trash game. There's also some contributed food, coffee and snacks.

For more information go to: Tidy Seas, City of Santa Barbara Sustainability and Resilience