Crews remove 4,000 pounds of debris in cleanup of Richardson Bay
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," says Keith Merkel, principal ecologist leading the project with the Richardson Bay Regional Agency, a local government agency dedicated to maintaining and improving Richardson Bay. "We have had divers working in the water here for years as part of our eelgrass restoration efforts, and we've seen that the Bay floor is littered in this kind of debris."
The cleanup included 300 acres of the 700-acre Richardson Bay Eelgrass Protection Zone, which the RBRA designated in October. Eelgrass supports migratory fish, reduces erosion caused by storms, and sequesters carbon. It is a crucial part of the food chain for harbor porpoises and sea lions.
In 2022, the RBRA estimated that there were more than 100 vessels in the Eelgrass Protection Zone. When anchors, chains, and other ground tackle scrape along the bottom of the Bay, they essentially act as a lawn mower for water plants, creating "crop circles" or barren areas where no eelgrass can grow, according to a statement from the RBRA.
By February 2023, the Marin Housing Authority had unanimously approved a voucher program to relocate residents living in boats on Richardson Bay into long-term housing on the mainland. RBRA had a mandate from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission to relocate all of the vessels off the anchorage by Oct. 15, 2026. Plans also included a buy-back program, offering up to $5,200 to people willing to remove or cede their vessels.
Items pulled from Richardson Bay in Marin County during a cleanup. Officials said two tons of marine debris was recovered.
Richardson Bay Regional Agency / Bay City News Service
Will Reisman, spokesperson for the RBRA, said Tuesday that 13 boats remain on the Bay, but occupants from eight of those will soon be moved into housing by the end of the summer through the voucher program.
Last week's cleanup was funded by a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at restoring at least 15 acres of eelgrass over four years. It was awarded to the RBRA and its partners at San Francisco State University and Audubon California.
According to Reisman, the debris pulled up last week was brought to an Army Corps of Engineers debris yard, with some items being recycled. Nearly all metals removed from the Bay are recycled, he said.
"We are not accusing anyone of deliberately discarding items overboard," said RBRA executive director Brad Gross. "That said, the type and amount of debris littering the Bay floor and preventing the healthy recovery of eelgrass reinforces the fact that an environmentally sensitive area like Richardson Bay is no place for mariners to permanently reside on vessels at anchor."
Surf scoters, Lesser and Greater Scaup, Western and Horned Grebes, double-crested cormorants and other birds will soon be the visible occupants of the 5-foot shallow bay, as they stop each year to forage and fuel up during their long migration north.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
4 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Why Shrubs and Hedges Around Your Home's Foundation Are Quietly Wrecking It—and What to Do
When my Northern California town adopted Ordinance #1309 in 2019—strongly urging homeowners to clear shrubs, hedges and even herbs from the 5-foot zone around their houses to help prevent wildfires—I took it personally. My lavender and I had been together for years. We'd survived droughts, gophers and a remodel. Now we were social pariahs.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
To tackle homelessness, Los Angeles moves to centralize its response
The request came in June. A staff member for Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath emailed the county's newly established Emergency Centralized Response Center, asking for a cleanup of a reoccurring homeless encampment along a rail line in the San Fernando Valley. Joshua Chung, an analyst with the Emergency Centralized Response Center, or ECRC, said he quickly got to work. He contacted outreach workers at nonprofits in the area to compile names of people living at the Northridge encampment. He then coordinated with multiple county departments to see if there was a bed available for those individuals, and if they'd qualify for special services because of health problems or drug addiction. It was all in preparation for the day in late July when crews would arrive to the train tracks and throw away tarps and tents, and remove a makeshift electrical line residents set up to siphon power from the grid. Bernice Saavedra said she and her fellow outreach workers at the nonprofit LA Family Housing had around a month before the cleanup to contact residents and find them help. Before ECRC, she said they often had just a few days. Sometimes only 24 hours. "The more time we have to engage, the more time we have to have thorough conversations," Saavedra said. "There's a better chance of getting people indoors." L.A. County's Emergency Centralized Response Center launched in January with a goal of better coordinating the various efforts among different government agencies and nonprofits to clean encampments, get people healthcare and into temporary or permanent housing. The dispatch center was established following a request from Supervisors Horvath and Kathryn Barger and is part of a larger stated effort to increase accountability and coordination when it comes to homeless services, including a new county homeless department that will launch next year. In the supervisors' motion requesting the response center, they said there previously wasn't one entity tasked "to oversee and direct daily operations for unhoused individuals across Los Angeles County" — no small problem when different county departments, federal agencies, state agencies and 88 cities are involved. Overlap and gaps in services were common. When an encampment popped up, officials said multiple agencies would receive requests for service and then act on their own, resulting in multiple outreach teams dispatched to the same location, without knowledge someone else had been there before. There were also jurisdictional issues. Sometimes, a state agency would clean an encampment on its property, but not notify the local agency that owned the adjacent property, allowing residents to move their encampment there, said Donald Holt, principal analyst with ECRC. Now, the county says ECRC overseas more than 150 outreach teams across 11 organizations and coordinates with multiple government agencies that offer housing and conduct cleanups to ensure they are working together. Horvath said the effort is particularly important given the investment the public has made to get people off the streets and the ongoing budget constraints facing all levels off government. "I am really grateful for all the ways we will now not only be able to deliver results but stretch those dollars further," Horvath said. "It wasn't until this center came together that that coordination was really put into action in the ways we all expected." Read more: The real story of how L.A. became the epicenter of America's homeless crisis Based in an office at the downtown Hall of Administration, center staff handle requests for service from elected officials, the public and government agencies and then coordinate cleanups and work to find housing, as well as needed medical care. In addition to eight analysts dedicated to managing requests for specific regions of the county, workers at the center include staff from the county's Housing for Health, Department of Mental Health, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the Department of Military & Veterans Affair, among others. Chung, who previously worked at the nonprofit LA Family Housing, said finding housing for someone was once like a game of telephone. But with the government agencies that manage shelters now a few cubicles away, things have changed. "Now I can just go over and talk to our [staff member] Josh... and say 'Hey Josh can you see if this [bed] is available?" Chung said. "That would have taken me six hours." On a recent Tuesday, staff started the day in a meeting where they updated one another on requests for service, including instances where people were successfully moved into housing and others where the effort was still underway. Chung told a group of roughly 20 about a person with autism who was anxious about living in a congregate shelter and is requesting a private room. Chung said staff was working on finding such an accommodation and in the meantime has tried to get the person open to living in a shelter that has availability. Other staff members then chimed in to offer suggestions, including looking for family members or friends who might house them. Shortly after the meeting, Chung's supervisor Lisa Speights stopped by the cubicle of Maribel Lozano-Hernandez with the county's Housing for Health program to discuss a housing request that came in within the last 24 hours. "You mentioned that client can't go in until Monday?" Speights said. Lozano-Hernandez said that yes, that housing site was likely full until Monday, almost a week later, but she had luck elsewhere. "I called a different site and [they] can take her today," Lozano-Hernandez said. "Oh nice," Speights responded. She texted the homeless individual's outreach person with an update. Holt said ECRC also ensures when an encampment is located near multiple jurisdictions, representatives from those jurisdictions are present for cleanups. "We are bringing them all together," he said. "We are going to have one operation on the same day." That's what happened recently in the San Fernando Valley. The cleanup would show the benefits of coordination and challenges of making lasting change. Located along a dirt path on the northside of an in-use rail line, the encampment was on land owned by Union Pacific. Step over the tracks, to the south, Metrolink is the owner. Three weeks ago , outreach workers from LA Family Housing, arrived to speak with residents, remind them of the following day's cleanup and encourage them to sign forms to get into housing. Outreach workers had already been on site around five times and had already located housing options for some of the people living in roughly 10 tents and makeshift structures. Today, among the team there was a substance abuse specialist, a mental health specialist, as well as a worker who previously was homeless to provide emotional support. Residents Jose Duran and his partner Melanie Morales said they moved onto the streets a few months ago when they couldn't pay rent after Duran fell from a three story building and could no longer work construction. Outreach workers hadn't been able to find a bed for the couple, but learned information they hadn't before. Speaking as trains zoomed past, Duran said after he fell from a ladder, his foot became infected and he received skin grafts to fix it, but still needs another surgery. He pulled up his pants to reveal a bulging ankle and said he hadn't heard from his doctor about when he could get it fixed. "We have a medical group that can come help you," Saavedra told him in Spanish. "Thank you," Duran replied. The next day, workers swept through the encampment and moved people out. By 10:30 a.m., the encampment was gone. The dirt path on both side of the rail line was clean. According to a county spokesperson, workers removed "four makeshift shelters or tents and ten cubic yards of debris." Duran and Morales weren't housed that day and said they were told there wasn't beds currently available. While deciding what to do next, they waited in a parking lot behind the dirt path they called home a few hours before. They said cleanup crews didn't give them enough time and threw out many of their belongings, including a backpack that held a photograph of Morales' now deceased mother. "It was the only one I had," Morales said, holding back tears. Rachel Kassenbrock, the county spokesperson, said on the day of the cleanup ten people from the encampment weren't immediately able to be housed, but put on a wait list until beds became available, including Duran and Morales. In addition, she said four others were moved into interim housing that day, including Jose Quinonez. The day before the cleanup the 48-year old said he had spent two years on the streets, with drugs and marital problems contributing. He said he was excited about "starting a new life." "I want to fix myself," Quinonez said. "None of us want to be here." Two weeks later, the encampment had repopulated. Late Wednesday morning, there were about 10 tents and makeshift shelters adjacent to the rail line. As the temperature neared 90 degrees, one resident sweated as he stripped an electrical wire for copper to sell. Duran and Morales were there too, asleep inside an orange tent, a black tarp draped over it for shade. Kassenbrock, the county spokesperson, said ECRC is continuing to work with remaining residents to get housed. That hasn't yet included Duran and Morales, but Kassenbrock said since the cleanup an additional three people have moved inside. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Artist drowns sculpture in plastic waste in front of the UN during plastic pollution treaty talks
Switzerland Plastic Pollution Treaty GENEVA (AP) — As nations began a second week of negotiations Monday for a global accord to end plastic pollution, an artist heaped piles of plastic waste onto a large sculpture in front of the United Nations office. Delegates to the treaty talks pass by the sculpture daily in a reminder of their responsibility to solve the plastic pollution crisis. The talks are scheduled to conclude Thursday. Benjamin Von Wong, a Canadian artist and activist, designed the nearly 6 meter (18 foot) sculpture called the 'Thinker's Burden' and built it with a team. It's his take on the famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin, 'The Thinker' in Paris. There is a male figure in deep thought, like Rodin depicted. But instead of sitting atop a rock, Von Wong's figure sits atop Mother Earth while cradling a baby and clutching plastic bottles. A strand of DNA intertwines them to highlight the health impacts of plastic pollution. With the help of volunteers, Von Wong is adding plastic waste to the installation over the course of the negotiations to reflect the growing cost of inaction. He climbed a ladder Monday to reach the top of the sculpture and weave plastic bottles through the DNA. He put a plastic toy car in front. 'By the end of this week, we should have a sculpture almost completely drowned in plastics, however, the hope is, a strong and ambitious plastics treaty means that we can solve this problem once and for all,' he said. The Minderoo Foundation, an Australian philanthropic organization, was the largest donor for the project. Local nonprofits and community groups collected the plastic trash. Standing by the sculpture, Maria Ivanova, an expert in international environmental governance, said it 'wakes you up.' Ivanova is the co-director of the Plastics Center at Northeastern University in Boston. 'People don't change their minds because of facts. They do because of feelings,' she said. 'And this is where I think art is absolutely critical to shift the needle on policy.' Delegates and tourists stopped to ask Von Wong about his work and pose for photos in front of it. Michael Bonser, head of the Canadian delegation, called the artwork 'extraordinarily profound.' 'It gives us a sense, every day, of what we need to be doing inside the room, what we need to walk out with. And that's a deal that allows us to reverse the trend,' he said. 'That's going to be challenging, but I think it's possible.' About 3,700 people are taking part in the talks, representing 184 countries and more than 600 organizations. They are crafting the first global, legally binding treaty on plastics pollution. Many agree the pace of the negotiations needs to speed up. They arrived in Geneva with hundreds of disagreements to be resolved. The number of unresolved issues grew last week, instead of shrinking. European Commissioner Jessika Roswall said she's concerned about the lack of progress, and 'it's time to get results.' Roswall is commissioner for environment, water resilience and a competitive circular economy. United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen told reporters it's still possible to agree on a treaty this week that ends plastic pollution. 'This is within grasp,' Andersen said. 'The window remains open to leave Geneva with this treaty.' ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Solve the daily Crossword
