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Help make Fort Tilden fresh and clean for next summer this weekend

fort tilden
Help out, so that every picture of Fort Tilden is free of trash. via Flickr user Todd Shirley

Summer is only right around corner (provided of course you’re on a very long curve), and one thing that means is that we’re going to want clean beaches where we can drink non-alcoholic beverages out of plastic cups. The city does their best, but it’s also nice sometimes to give back to the beaches which do so much for you, and you can do just that this Sunday by joining up with other volunteers from the International Coastal Cleanup who are cleaning up Fort Tilden.

If you’ve been one to enjoy the slightly abandoned glory and sand bars of Fort Tilden, this is the beach cleaning trip for you. Not that we’re accusing you of leaving trash, you’re fine, we bet, but other people, they’re not as considerate as you. Either way, Manjari Doxey, who’s leading the volunteer recruitment for the cleanup effort, tells us that the beach isn’t cleaned too regularly and that trash does tend to pile up there. So, they’re gathering everyone they can for a group cleanup on Sunday, September 27, from 11:30am to 2pm.

Beyond keeping the beach fresh and clean, the cleanup effort on Sunday is being used to document the trash you come across, to provide data for the Ocean Conservancy’s Ocean Trash Index. This index is used to identify which places in our disgusting, trash filled oceans need the most attention from anti-pollution efforts, in the hopes that by focusing on any big or unusual trash activity, policies can be developed to prevent people from having to go back year after year to clean things up in a fruitless, Sisyphean battle.

If you want to clean the beach, shoot an email to cleanupforttilden [AT] gmail.com. As this is Fort Tilden we’re talking about, getting there is the only challenge, but Doxey said that with enough volunteers, she can get a bus going to the beach. There’s also talk of a group riding their bikes down there, and it’s still going to be relatively nice on Sunday, so there’s always that.

One Response to

  1. N. Flagrante

    “The city does their best”

    In the case of Tilden it is federal and so the city does nothing. And the Park Service does far too little – they spend their whole budget on Sandy Hook, it would appear. Tilden isn’t even provided soap for the single restroom.

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