The Clallam Bay/Sekiu Chamber of Commerce, the Clallam County Marine Resource Committee, WSU BeachWatchers of Clallam County and the Surfrider Foundation partnered to bring the International Coast Clean-up to the Clallam Bay -- Sekiu area as part of the overall Straits of Juan de Fuca cleanup. This joint clean up happened all over the world on the weekend of September 17th and 18th (check their website at http://coastalcleanup.org/welcome.cfm).
Ian Miller of the surfriders was one of the main coordinators of the "Straits cleanup". Ian's report on the results of the whole Straits cleanup can be viewed by Clicking Here.

This was the first Annual NW Straits Cleanup Day and we are hoping that the event will grow in future years, will add more and more shoreline, and may include a festival later in the day. But this year, we were just focusing on getting people out on the beach cleaning up trash. This event  received some media attention in the Peninsula Daily News and our local Forks Forum Click here to View the Forum article.

On the day of the event, there was a sign up registration table at the Clallam Bay – Sekiu Chamber welcome Visitor Center across from the Clallam Bay Grocery Store in downtown Clallam Bay.  Volunteers, who had not pre-registered, came to the registration table Sunday morning September 18th from 7:00 am on.  After they partook of the free coffee and donuts/cake they selected a beach area and picked up their supplies of bags, gloves, snacks (Cliff Bar was a sponsor) pens and data sheets.  After the selected beach areas were cleaned, most all volunteers returned to the visitors center, had some more coffee and donuts/cake, and left their Data Sheets and bags (most everyone).  The bags were picked up, weighed and disposed of. The Data Sheets were reviewed (summarized) and sent on to the central coordinators.

Here are a couple pictures. One taken outside the Visitors Center with Mike Doherty, Carol Schultz and Pat Ness (Pat held down the office) . And another  with Mike and Carol, showing some of their prizes.

  

Because the beach was not continuous and very limited access, especially at certain tide levels, the cleanup was conducted in sections. The tides were minus (-) 0.78 feet at 7:53 PM and 7.49 feet at 2:25 PM (around 5 ft at Noon) so the low tide sections were attacked early.  Additionally, because of the washed out County Park bridge (across from the visitor center),  just getting to the beach sections was a challenge.  If it were not for the Spring Tavern owner, Jerry White, opening up his private property for the event, it would have been very difficult to do the whole beach at all.  Additionally, the parking for the Slip Point access is real joke.  It is limited to two vehicles spots squeezed in along the shoulder of  the road leading to the old Coast Guard station. There is no parking allowed on the Coast Guard property and the rest is private property.  We had some Texas visitors who signed in and filled out the front of Data Sheet but apparently did not pickup. I am sure they may have been discouraged by lack of parking/access at Slip Point.  This is a common complaint.

In any event, those that persevered and the beaches they attended to, are shown below.

1. Marcella and Larry Tveit (2 Bags) handled the section  from the Coho resort toward Sekiu to the Browns private residential property. This is a nice sandy beach walk but a little hard on Marcella because of her rheumatoid arthritis particularly in the  unpacked sandy areas, she said. She said that next year she may not be able to do the job because it took her two days to recover from this event.  I guess that would leave it up to Larry and the kids and Grandkids.  Although, by that time, a new cure for that dreaded disease would have been found, we all hope. Besides,  is hard to hold Marcella down in any case.
   
2. Kamera Baker and Ted Muralt (2 Bags) handled the  low tide section from the Spring Tavern beach to a point just before the Coho Resort marina. This is a rocky beach and was a little slippery and a little tough going in spots, but was actually very interesting because of the low tide and all the birds and old railroad debris left over from the days of railroad shipment of lumber from this area.  We did have to climb the cliff to leave a  filled bag on Hwy 112 to pickup later.  After we continued back to the Spring and filled up the other bag, we drove back the retrieve the bag left on the road way.
   
3. Douglas Muralt and his three kids (Adam, 7, John, 6 and Grace, 5) (2 Bags) handled the trip from the Spring Tavern beach east toward  Slip point to a point adjacent to the washed out Clallam County Park bridge.  It was an easy walk with no interruptions from the Clallam River (no wading required this time of the year) and no problem with the tide impeding things. The beach was mostly sandy, to start,  but turns toward medium size smooth gravel (a favorite haunt for agate hunters) near the bridge area an on toward Slip Point. This was a wide area to cover including the trapped water sections south of the main beach. Douglas said that the kids were getting a bit tired, because of the early wake up time and the wide area of coverage and the advancing  weight of the trash bags.
4.  Mike Doherty (1 Bag)  was picking his way down from the Slip Point access path, with his bag of trash in hand when he came across Douglas Muralt and the kids at a point opposite the washed out bridge.   Mike, seeing how tired the kid were, offered them help back to his vehicle, and then, a ride back to the visitor center and back home. They were extremely happy and grateful that Mike had come by.
   
5. Patricia Hutson and Brian Richardson (3 Bags) covered the Clallam Bay beach from Slip Point west toward the Spring Tavern, a long trek.
   
6. Carol Schultz and Stephanie Lucas (1 Bag) handled the low tide section  from the old Coast Guard Station and around Slip Point to the East. This section offered some of the best views around and is where the fossils are found and lots of sea creatures  (tidal pools, etc.).  This was a round trip (from the old coast Station around the point and back) and was started early (before  8:00 am) to avoid being trapped by the tide.  One of the limitations of this walk to the beach for this point, as pointed out by many visitors, is the extremely limited parking area (room for 2 cars). The Clallam Bay beach has a severe parking/access limitation (combined with the washed out Bridge) which may be remedied when the Coast Guard station property gets transferred to local control  (eminently, as rumored).
   
7. Dan Spomer and Jaclyn (Bags disposed of at Olsons) handled the Sekiu beach, by Olsons Resort, parallel with front St.
   

 Other Beaches covered which were out side the targeted Sekiu/Clallam Bay/Slip Point area are listed below:

1. Shipwreck Point (approximately 12 miles west of Clallam Bay) was picked up by Ted Muralt (3 Bags)
2. Beach by Sekiu River bridge west (approximately 3 miles west of Clallam Bay) was picked up by Stephanie Lucas (1 Bag)
3. Pysht  (approximately 12 miles east of Clallam Bay) and the Twins area (approximately 16 miles east of Clallam Bay) was picked up by Mike Doherty  (Bag - Disposed of by Mike)