For 40 Years, the Valley Has Shown Up for Its Watershed

Join the Annual River & Road Clean Up Sept. 19

A plastic bottle tossed beside Highway 9 may not stay there. Rain can carry roadside litter into a drainage, a creek or the San Lorenzo River, and from there, downstream toward Monterey Bay, where it can harm wildlife and become part of a much larger pollution problem.

For 40 years, San Lorenzo Valley residents have done something remarkably simple about it: they’ve picked it up.

AJ, Tiffany and Reagan Thompson make caring for the Valley a family affair during the River & Road Clean Up at Felton Covered Bridge Park.

The annual River & Road Clean Up began in 1986 with Al Haynes, the San Lorenzo Valley Water District’s first Watershed Analyst. Concerned about increasing amounts of litter making their way from roadsides into local waterways, Haynes secured a grant to establish the first cleanup and reached out to Nancy Macy of the Valley Women’s Club (VWC) to help recruit volunteers and spread the word.

After the first year, the VWC took over coordination of the event, beginning a community tradition that has now spanned generations.

“It’s exciting to see how long the River & Road Clean Up has lasted and how many families and individuals return year after year,” Macy says. “That includes the volunteers staffing the registration tables as well as those picking up trash.”

Over the years, an average of about 120 volunteers have hauled away 2 to 5 tons of trash and recyclable materials annually. Children who once participated with their parents have grown up to become parents and teachers themselves, returning with their own children and students.

Ben Lomond River & Road Clean Up volunteers, from left: Tomas Macias, Beth Morland, Andrew and Amber Carroll.

And 40 years of picking up other people’s trash has produced some memorable discoveries. “We’ve pulled everything from a VW Bug to all sorts of sports equipment and tons of recyclables from the river,” Macy says.

One roadside find turned out to be a student’s backpack containing his computer, identification, and senior thesis. It had fallen from the top of his car, and he had been searching for it for hours. Volunteers tracked him down and returned it. Another young volunteer tackled something much smaller, but no less important. She decided to concentrate on cigarette butts and collected 200 of them.

Today, the VWC partners with Save Our Shores for the cleanup, while the Lompico Community Center continues its own longstanding cleanup in Lompico Canyon.

The fact that this effort has lasted 40 years is a testament to the people who keep showing up. To everyone who has filled a trash bag, staffed a check-in table, hauled a load, or brought a child along to learn by example: thank you. Those thousands of hours of volunteer effort represent four decades of stewardship of the place we call home. And there is always room for another pair of hands.

The 40th Annual SLV River & Road Clean Up takes place Saturday, September 19, from 9am to noon, with check-in at Barbara Day Park in Boulder Creek, Highlands Park in Ben Lomond, and Covered Bridge Park in Felton. Supplies and suggested cleanup locations will be available. Students can earn community service credit.

Forty years later, the idea remains simple: caring for the watershed starts with caring for the place right outside our doors.

Contributed by the Valley Women’s Club of the San Lorenzo Valley

Featured photo at top of page: San Lorenzo River, Ben Lomond by Mary Andersen