Spring is a great time to break away from the Winter blues, get some dirt under your fingernails, and transform your yard into a place of ecological function. Surfrider initiated the Ocean Friendly Gardens Program (OFG) to help its members and the general public take some steps at their own homes to clean and prevent pollution reaching the ocean and start to restore urban watersheds. Water leaving residential and other developed sites can carry away and/or pick up pollutants on its journey to the ocean. This urban runoff has become the #1 source of ocean pollution. To learn more about simple steps you can take to make a positive change in your own backyard, visit the OFG website by clicking here. At the site you can order a guide to simple steps to Ocean Friendly Gardening implementation. There is also an abundance of information on different things like rain barrels, composting, and turf removal.

Thanks so much to all the volunteers that came out and supported the beach cleanups this past weekend! The event was a huge success with Oregon Surfrider Foundation chapters captaining beaches in nearly every zone this year! Big props to first time Surfrider beach captains: Mike Manzulli in Cannon Beach and Tara Gallagher was the entire Zone 2 captain for the north coast (Seaside to Cannon Beach), Frank DeFellippis at  Nye Beach and Jacque Rodriquez at Otter Rock. As usual, the core Surfrider captain crew for Beverly Beach, Agate Beach, South Beach, Lost Creek and the Jetties in Florence and Newport did a tremendous job. All said and done, over 4,200 volunteers and 70,500 pounds of trash! Nice work all!

It’s that time of year once again and the winter storms have washed plenty on our beaches to be picked up! Join us, this Saturday as we participate statewide with our chapters and other volunteers for SOLV’s 25th Anniversary Spring Beach Cleanup: March 20th 10am-1pm all along the coast! We hope you’ll come out and join us at one of the eight different sites captained by Surfrider volunteers and get a free reusable bag or come to any one of the many other spots along the coast (over 45 different registration points). Go to Spring Beach Cleanup to pre-register and find locations closest to you. We hope to see you there!

Our friends at the San Diego Chapter have put together this great video on the water cycle and what is needed to fix our wasteful behaviors. Most people in Oregon know that we live in an area with abundant precipitation, however, few people realize that we have a very limited storage capacity (especially on the coast) during summer months when water demands and usage are high. Check out the movie trailer here & look for the full video to come out soon. Think about ways to minimize your water footprint at your home and in your daily routine, Know Your H2O!!!