Marian Bear Canyon Looking PRETTY Good

If you noticed the beaches and canyons and creeks look pretty good today, there's a reason: today was the creek-to-bay cleanup, and an army of volunteers was out this morning, making them look good. Did you volunteer? Why the heck not? It was actually a lot of fun! It was also a pretty good feeling to contribute the conservation of Marian Bear which is a canyon that I run in all the time.

Above and below: before and after pictures of Marian Bear today. Well okay not really, but we did make it purtier by taking trash out and it was fun. Image sources UMN Library and Socaltrails.com resp.

I also have to give San Diego credit where credit is due: in the past I've kvetched about trash in the canyons, but to be honest there wasn't a huge amount. It's great to see people taking care of their resources. Still there's always room for improvement and I'm glad I got to take part. I was glad to see the UVA Alumni group out there, and some folks from the Surfrider Foundation. It's much harder to get people willing to help inland and in the canyons then along the coast, so if you volunteer, you can make an even bigger difference by volunteering at an inland site.

Want to help in the future? I'm sure there will be chances before then but Coastal Cleanup Day is September 17, 2011. I'm putting it on my calendar now.