South Beach Clean Up Party on Saturday

Mt. Finlayson and South Beach – Contributed photo

San Juan Islanders and visitors are invited to join with National Park Service staff and volunteers in a seasonal clean-up at American Camp’s South Beach scheduled 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, September 27.

The clean-up—meeting in the main parking area at the foot of Pickett’s lane is one of several events coinciding with the visit this week (September 25-28) of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and its Subaru/Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers Team.

South Beach, once called the Salmon Bank Beach for the fishing grounds located immediately offshore, is the longest public beach in the San Juan Archipelago. It is also culturally significant, as it attracted some of the earliest human habitation on San Juan Island, and was key to the salmon canning industry in late 19th and early 20th century. It remains one of the most bountiful fishing grounds in the region.

Today it is frequented by thousands of visitors who picnic, beach walk and fish. This makes it a prime candidate for the Leave No Trace ethic: In addition to the usual flotsam and jetsam from the strait, the beach is also littered with containers of all shapes and sizes, clothing articles, tottering driftwood structures, and worst of all, broken glass.

All members of the San Juan Islands community are encouraged to attend the Leave No Trace training sessions and learn how Leave No Trace principles can to help protect and preserve the archipelago and special places such as South Beach, for years to come.

The training sessions are as follows:

• Thursday September 25
  San Juan Island, 10 am-2 pm
  Workshop location: meeting room downstairs at Key Bank, 2nd St. Friday Harbor
• Friday September 26
  Lopez Island, 10:30 am-2:30 pm
  Workshop location: Love Dog Café, Lopez Village
• Sunday September 28
  Orcas Island, 12:30 pm-4:30 pm
  Workshop location: Moran State Park, Cascade Lake, Day Use Kitchen Shelter

The training and accompanying activities will be conducted in partnership with land and water conservation agencies and organizations in San Juan County such as: the National Park Service, San Juan Islands National Monument, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife, San Juan Preservation Trust, San Juan Islands Visitors Bureau, Kwiaht, San Juan County Marine Resources Committee, Washington State Parks, and others.

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