Volunteers sought for Salmon Creek Beach cleanup, just not too many

California State Parks personnel are facing a dilemma when it comes to the bits of foam rubber and other debris left scattered along Salmon Creek Beach in the wake of the Aleutian Storm grounding last month.

There’s a huge amount of litter, much of it non-biodegradable polystyrene foam, and each day its gets broken down into smaller pieces by the sun, wind and waves that constantly reshape the Pacific coastline.

“We want to get this cleaned up,” said Brendan O’Neil, senior environmental scientist for state parks.

But it’s largely concentrated above the high tide line, spread along the same strip of beach favored for nesting by small, federally endangered snowy plovers, which, as luck would have it, are in their breeding season now.

Thus, a cleanup of the beach scheduled for Saturday afternoon has to proceed with the utmost care. Volunteers are needed for the 1:30 p.m. event, but organizers are trying to strike a balance between getting enough help and having too many people traipsing along the beach.

“We have snowy plovers getting ready to nest,” O’Neil said. “ … The boat is wrecked right on one of the three locations on Salmon Creek where snowy plovers like to nest.”

So those participating must be ready to focus their efforts and arrive on time for an orientation about snowy plover behavior, nesting habitat and areas to avoid, said longtime ocean steward Cea Higgins. Higgins helped organize the event as advocacy coordinator and former executive director of Coastwalk/California Coastal Trail Association.

The largest deposit of debris also is far down the beach, so volunteers need to be prepared to walk, she said.

“I do believe that people who want to volunteer will be conscientious, with the proper guidance,” Higgins said.

The Aleutian Storm came aground late on the night of Feb. 9 and was torn apart in winter storms a week later. Salvage crews working to cut the remainder apart suspended operations until June to wait for better tidal conditions this summer and the reduction of winter swells. They were about three-fourths of the way through the job.

Clumps of foam are constantly breaking loose from the boat’s remaining wreckage, which includes parts of the hull and keel, joining the massive amounts already scattered everywhere.

“The problem is this foam is super mobile,” O’Neil said, “so it moves around all the time, and the wind will blow it all over the place.”

And the boat was lined with the stuff, Higgins said.

She said the Saturday cleanup event was scheduled just as soon as vessel salvage operations were suspended in hopes of getting volunteers on the ground, at low tide, as soon as practical before snowy plover nesting season was in full swing.

But with breeding behavior already underway, and the birds and their nests — mere scrapes in the sand — so vulnerable to any disturbance, the effort has to proceed with caution, O’Neil said.

The birds’ very low reproductive success is why they are endangered in the first place, so even a few fledged birds in the limited remaining areas they use for nesting are celebrated.

Their nests, shallow depressions often decorated with pebbles and dried seaweed, are easily ruined, and adult plovers are quick to flush from the nest if alarmed. The eggs and young are targets for predators, as well.

Parks biologists annually install rope fences around areas most likely to host nesting birds, which are so camouflaged against the sand and natural beach litter that a casual visitor might not notice.

Cleanup volunteers and anyone else who visits the beach is prohibited from going in those areas, Higgins said.

But there is still plenty to do by folks of any age or ability level, she said.

Participants should meet at the Bodega Dunes Beach parking area off Highway 1 north of Bodega Bay and bring gloves, a reusable water bottle, sun protection and a litter picker, if they have one, Higgins said.

Coastwalk will provide bags, which, once filled, will be staged for later pickup along the beach, so volunteers won’t have to carry them back to the parking lot.

The state park fee will be waived for volunteers, she said.

“There has been such community interest,” Higgins said. “People who have been able to walk there are just devastated by what they see, so people have just been waiting for this opportunity.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.