Forum on March 18th at 6:15pm at Live Oak Elementary School 1916 Capitola Rd.

Free and open to the public.

Santa Cruz Water Department and Soquel Creek Water District are planning to build a desalination plant, to serve Santa Cruz and Live Oak residents in dry years, and Soquel District customers in all other years. Soquel District wants to reduce pumping from the aquifer, which they report is in danger of seawater contamination from over-pumping.

It’s up to our community to decide the desalination issue. The sponsoring organizations want to get feedback from people who attend the forum.  Sarah Mansergh of Surfrider explains, “Turning sea water into fresh water through this energy intensive process is a significant new step for this community. It’s important that people are fully informed of the consequences.”  The organizers will poll people who attend on their opinions about the desalination plant as a core component of our local water policy.

Save Our Shores will be hosting a creek cleanup along Branciforte Creek on February 13th from 9am to noon. We will have a check-in table at the intersection of Market Street and Avalon Street. SOS will have heavy duty gloves, rubber boots, buckets and bags but feel free to bring your own garden gloves or tools. We will be cleaning along Branciforte Creek down to where it meets San Lorenzo River.

Families are welcome and will be able to clean stretches along the bike path which are safe for smaller children. All children must be accompanied by an adult. All participants must sign a waiver form at the check-in table prior to participating or you can download the waiver below and bring it with you to speed up your check-in process.

When planning your next vacation, think of Save Our Shores.  Visit Gift of Travel and the trips you book with them will benefit Save Our Shores! 

Click here and 4% of the total cost of your trip booked through Gift of Travel will be donated to Save Our Shores. 

Give back to the ocean this New Year by joining the Sanctuary Stewards Docent Program.
Exclusive lectures and fun field trips will prepare you to be the voice of our beaches.
Join the SOS volunteer team by applying today, the program starts soon!  More information under our volunteer program links.

To apply please click here.

Click here to see the data of what was collected on Annual Coastal Cleanup Day in Santa Cruz County.

The 25th Annual Coastal Cleanup Day marked the largest community wide cleanup effort in Santa Cruz County to date. 3,802 volunteers removed 9,012 pounds of trash and 3,903.5 pounds of recycle from our local beaches, rivers, sloughs, and kelp beds.

Save Our Shores offered 50 cleanup sites throughout the County including beach, river, slough, kayak, SCUBA, and paddle boarding sites. By far our river sites yielded the most trash in pounds, while volunteers down on the beach collected thousands of smaller pieces of debris such as cigarette butts, plastic pieces, and Styrofoam pieces.

Thanks to over 1,200 students in Santa Cruz, our volunteer capacity has grown significantly. We are proud of our local students and commend them on their hard work and dedication to keeping our ocean healthy. Additionally, we had many more local businesses get involved this year by sending employees down to our cleanup sites.

June 8th,2009 is the first official World Oceans Day in the U.S.A!  It was officially declared by the United Nations just a few months ago!
Congratulations to all who made this happen.

Things to do on World Ocean's Day:
-"Wear blue and tell two" Wear blue clothing and tell two people about World Ocean's Day and ways they can help the ocean.
- Do your own beach cleanup, go to the beach with family and friends and bring bags and gloves to collect trash so it doesn't end up in the ocean.
- Attend a local event, listed on Thankyouoceans.org
Have a great World Ocean's Day! For more information on World Ocean's Day visit Theoceanproject.org

Save Our Shores is excited to announce that our July 4th “Pollution Prevention is Patriotic” efforts dramatically decreased the amount of trash left behind on Santa Cruz County beaches after the fun and often rowdy July 4th celebrations.  SOS staff and volunteers launched a widespread awareness and pollution prevention campaign leading up to this year’s Independence Day holiday that helped celebrators at the beach ensure that their party didn’t leave a big mess. 

Approximately 1,200 garbage and recycle bags were distributed to beach goers on July 4th through education and pollution prevention efforts in the Aptos parade (where SOS won Grand Prize! Check back for our July 4th and 5th YouTube video)  and at our local beaches.  Volunteers walked the beaches, approaching groups of celebrators to offer extra garbage and recycle bags and share information about where to dispose of your trash and what items are recyclable in Santa Cruz County.

The governor has proposed closing 220 of 279 State Parks and Beaches in California, including each and every one in Santa Cruz County!

Santa Cruz County Beaches that will be effected include: Big Basin Redwoods State Park (SP), Castle Rock State Park, Castro Adobe State Historic Park (SHP), Coast Dairies State Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Lighthouse Field State Beach (SB), Manresa SB, Manresa Uplands SP, Natural Bridges SB, New Brighton SB, Palm SB, Rio Del Mar SB, Santa Cruz Mission SHP, Seabright SB, Seacliff SB, Sunset SB,The Forest of Nisene Marks, Twin Lakes SB, Wilder Ranch SP

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. COME TO THE RALLY - Monday, June 1, 5:30 PM, at Natural Bridges State Beach, in the parking lot before the entrance station. Rally participants will be able to use a mobile computing station, supported by a beach-area wi-fi hotspot, to send messages to Governor Schwarzenegger and legislators. We hope for good media coverage, so please come and bring your friends and family.  Express your love for the parks by bringing signs, wearing your favorite park t-shirt or docent-wear.

If someone hands you a small blue marble don’t be surprised. Here’s what to do: Give it away to someone who is also taking care of our big blue ocean.

Or give it to someone else along with a tip about how to live blue.

Then share your story, pictures or videos on BlueMarbles.organd inspire others to live blue. To get your blue marble, or a couple to share stop by the SOS office or volunteer for one of our summer events! And if you want to get inspired check out the blog to read other people's Blue Marble stories.