California Coastal Cleanup Day set forSept. 19

California Coastal Cleanup Day, the annual beach and inland waterway cleanup, will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Sept. 19, at 15 beaches along the Sonoma Coast and eight inland sites.

Sponsored by Coastwalk, the Sonoma County cleanup will be held at Blind Beach, Goat Rock Beach, Portuguese Beach, Steelhead Beach, Bodega Dunes, North Jenner Beach, Russian Gulch, Sunset Beach, Bodega Head, North Salmon Creek Beach, Shell Beach, Wright's Beach, Doran Beach, Pinnacle Gulch, South Salmon Creek Beach and the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

There will also be cleanups at the Petaluma River with the Friends of the Petaluma River, at several creeks in the Sonoma Valley with the Sonoma Ecology Center and along Santa Rosa Creek with the Sonoma County Creek Cleanup.

To register for a specific site, go to coastwalk.org. Volunteers are asked to come to the cleanup prepared for coastal weather (hats, shoes, sunscreen, reusable water bottle) and with buckets and gloves, if possible.

There will also be a hot dog barbecue for volunteers, and a contest for the most unusual trash find.

In 2010, over 82,500 volunteers removed more than 1.2 million pounds of trash and recyclables from the state's beaches, lakes, and waterways.

When combined with the International Coastal Cleanup, organized by Ocean Conservancy and taking place on the same day, California Coastal Cleanup Day becomes part of one of the largest volunteer events in the world.