ADOPT a BEACH
Salem
Sound Coastwatch's NEWEST program is unique
in many ways:
- It
creates teams of individuals to become "beachkeepers"
at their favorite beach.
- It
is year-round which makes it more productive and responsive
than seasonal activities such as a single coastal cleanup.
- It
is comprehensive. Volunteers will be trained and asked to
identify issues of concern for public health and environmental
quality in order to provide timely information to the beach
owners whether they be private or municipalities.
- It
expands local stewardship of the environment.
- It
provides a sustainable mechanism to protect and improve beaches
and marine resources.
__________________________________________________________
Contact
SSCW to Adopt a Beach!
Be
one of the first beachkeepers.
Volunteer
sign-up form (114 KB Word
Doc)
Program
Description (62 KB PDF)
SSCW
will train volunteers and then will work with each team to conduct
a beach survey at their adopted beach.
Next
training is yet to be scheduled
Email
or call if you want training!
info@salemsound.org or 978-741-7900
Teams
are:
- Visually
monitoring for sources of pollution, signs of erosion and evidence
of invasive species such as the new invasive plant, pepperweed
- Collecting
samples from stormwater outfall pipes and coastal streams for
testing for bacterial contamination
(where appropriate)
- Conducting
regular coastal clean-ups, especially after storm events when
debris is washed ashore
- Identifying
other problems and issues affecting the beach
Understanding
long-term stresses on our beaches is very important. Team members
will help establish
benchmarks to enable us to evaluate erosion rate, storm damage
and sea level rise over time.
IMPORTANT
LINKS for BEACHKEEPERS:
Storm
Reporter:StormReporter is an innovative tool that enables
the rapid delivery of storm damage information to emergency management
personnel and others. Report and upload up to five photos of storm
damage at your beach and coast.
How
bad are plastics in the ocean? Really BAD.
Check it out.
An
important goal of the Adopt a Beach program is its sustainability
through the underwriting or sponsorships of the program and/or
individual beaches. Team members may be able to assist in fundraising
to assure the program's sustainability.
Be
one of the first to help us form a team. We are currently developing
this program under a grant from the Massachusetts Environmental
Trust (MET),
which receives funding from the sales of environmental license
plates.
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