VOLUNTEER TO CLEAN-UP OLD WOMAN CREEK BEACH AND ESTUARY

Huron, Ohio – It’s time to turn around the Lake Erie watershed ~ it’s time for Coastweeks 2008. Last year, over 1100 volunteers plucked over 25,000 pounds of trash from the beaches, tributaries and underwater muck along 32 miles of Lake Erie shores. Food wrappers and beverage containers account for most of the trash including used auto parts, appliances and many other unwanted and peculiar items.

What makes Coastweeks great? People do. Anyone can participate in Coastweeks. Organizing one clean-up can make a difference by bringing communities together in a collaborative effort in keeping one of Ohio’s most prized treasures, the Lake Erie watershed vibrant and beautiful.

This year’s Coastweeks events will take place September 12th through September 21st with International Coastal Cleanup day scheduled for September 20, 2008.

As part of Ohio’s Coastweeks 2008 the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve will sponsor a beach and estuary clean-up at the Reserve’s beach access on Saturday, September 20 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. 

The event is free and open to the public.  No registration is required.  Sunscreen, boots or sturdy shoes, and gloves are recommended.   For more information on the Old Woman Creek clean-up, please contact Phoebe Van Zoest at 419-433-4601.

For information regarding statewide Coastweeks events, please contact Jill Woodyard or Linda Zmudzinski of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission office at 419-245-2514 or log on to: www.epa.state.oh.us/oleo for up-to-the-day information.