By Lisa Fimiani

The weather kept things cool while more than 150 volunteers spread out into the Ballona Wetlands and along the creek to participate in 27th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day, sponsored by Heal the Bay here in LA County.

Several schools and family groups came out to try their hand at removing non-native myoporum trees and picking up solid trash along the Ballona Creek. We split our recruits into three teams, and the myoporum removers were first to fill up our dumpster with branches and leaves.

Buckley teacher and veteran Ballona volunteer Kathy Griffis brought some of her students out, and several new schools joined in. Kids from St. Bernard’s seemed to be having lots of fun pulling plastic and Styrofoam particles from the Creek shore.

Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Professor Carolyn Viviano came out to “work the Creek” after checking everyone in with staff member Patrick Tyrrell and his sister Anne – who we can always depend upon to help out every year we participate in the cleanup. Courtney McCammon and April Sandifer, students at LMU, led a group pulling out thistle along the dunes trail.

Christian Alvez welcomed the volunteers after they had coffee and snacks and told them about the North Pacific Gyre growing to two times the size of the state of Texas – one of the reasons we go to the trouble of picking up the solid plastic trash along the Creek.

David Weiner from Heal the Bay came out to take photos and participate at our site, it was great meeting him and having a chance to talk about the work we do along the Creek to help keep the bay clean.

Our friends from The G2 Gallery made a morning of it, travelling in a gaggle up and down the Creek.

Board Member John Gregory, our President Catherine Tyrrell and her husband Tom came out to assist, and we were joined by Josh Rosenzweig from Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to present the Friends with a check for $5,000 as a 2011 Community Action Grant recipient under their RBC Blue Water Project.

Veteran Audubon Docents June Walden, Diana Spurlin, Saran Kirschbaum, Joyce Karel were stationed along the Creek supervising volunteers and making sure hazardous objects, such as needles and fish hooks, were disposed of properly. June got stuck with her favorite job – doing dog poo patrol, which she carefully removed and placed in separate bags. It’s still amazing to me that dog owners who leave their dog poo behind along the Creek Path don’t make the connection that it eventually ends up in the Creek and the Ocean – contributing to the high levels of unhealthy fecal matter in the water!

Despite that, some of the Audubon Docents pointed out some marine creatures we had never seen so close to shore, two sea hares were seen close to shore, and we marveled at how they moved in the water.

Getting back to the land, Friends’ Docents Kathy Griffis, Bruce Shelden and Bryce Smith assisted with myoporum and grass removal.

Even little ones – under close supervision from their parents and wearing protective gloves, were helping remove non-native grasses and trash on the Creek.

What we all commented on was the unusually high volume of itsy bitsy pieces of Styrofoam lining the Creek side between Pacific Avenue Bridge and about half way to the Lincoln Boulevard overpass. It made the job of picking up the small pieces of trash very tedious and frustrating because there was so much of it. We pondered why there was so much this year – more than I’ve ever seen it in years.

There are always unusual items found along the Creek, this year we found a tiny bottle with barnacles on it and a retired police ID badge.

REI, the outdoor sporting goods store, had a fleet of kayaks out cleaning up trash on the other side of the Creek, along the Jetty. Some of their volunteers came over to add to our growing pile of trash, and land volunteers came over to join in with our group.

All in all we collected close to 75 bags of trash and cleared out a patch of myoporum that will now allow for native plants to creep in next spring from the restored meadow we are bringing back to life.

Speaking of life, as some of us were leaving I noticed something running across the path to the entrance gate. I just thought it was an insect, but to my amazement I realized it was the tiniest Western Fence Lizard that I had ever seen! We looked at it in amazement, at how small it was wrapped around my finger, and then I let it go in the grass. Great way to end the day’s event – a symbol of why we restore habitat, so little critters like the lizards can thrive.

The Friends is so grateful to all the volunteers who came out to participate. A special thank you to Mia the owner of Café Milan for a fresh pot of coffee, and for Whole Foods donating snacks. And a huge thank you to Jim Burton from EcoKai Environmental Inc. for covering the remaining costs of feeding our hard-working volunteers. At least our volunteers didn’t walk away hungry!

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