On Sunday, January 12, a group of ForestWatch volunteers spent their morning painstakingly removing tiny pieces of trash scattered throughout the West Fork Cold Spring Trail area in the Santa Barbara frontcountry.
The cleanup was the second in the past year to tackle the microtrash in this area. During the summer 2019 efforts, volunteers removed 30 pounds of lead bullets and bullet fragments from on and around the trail. The area was long used as an illegal target shooting site.
Volunteers at Sunday’s cleanup removed an additional 10 pounds of lead from the area as well as 30 pounds of broken glass and 20 pounds of cans, bottles and other trash! Cleaning up the microtrash is no easy task, but these volunteers breezed through it.
We’ve removed much of the broken glass and lead from the area, but there’s still more work to be done. We plan to have a few more cleanups at the site over the next year or two. Cleaning up the microtrash helps reduce soil and water pollution and it keeps wildlife, hikers, and dogs safer.
Thank you to everyone who joined us! See more photos from the cleanup below:
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