A new year, a cleaner marsh
By Audre Newman
It was a king tide on the last beautiful day of 2013. Many bird watchers were crowding the shore to see birds that are hard to find at lower tide levels. The bay was as smooth as glass. A thousand willets and marbled godwits, a heron, and a platoon of black-necked stilts watched us from their ringside seats on the pier.
Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. we collected eight bags of plastics, Styrofoam, paper, and metal, in the form of cups, cans, bags, wrappers, etc. The strangest item found was part of a white-washed lattice fence. The nicest was a pair of high-quality knee pads. I won’t mention the most disgusting item.
“We” were a small group of 11 nature lovers from Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Ashby Village, and some friends. We took kayaks and canoes into the marsh to clean floating trash out of the grasses.
Keith Miller at California Canoe and Kayak generously provided free canoes and kayaks for the project. Anthony Decicco of Golden Gate Bird Alliance provided scooping and collecting equipment, as well as yummy put-in snacks. Denny Bader and Roger Newman provided boat transport. Audre Newman did the organizing and recruiting. Sherry Keith, Robert Girling, Lisa Esherick, Jenny Feng, Mrs. Feng, Mike and Peggy Tavare rounded out the crew.
It was a delight to be out on the water on such a gorgeous day, and to be making Arrowhead marsh a healthier habitat for the local wildlife. It was a great way to ring out the old year!
Thanks to all the people mentioned above for taking part in the 2nd Biennial Canoe and Kayak Clean-up of Arrowhead Marsh.