Volunteers Sought For Annual Assateague Island Coastal Cleanup

by

BERLIN — The Assateague Island Coastal Cleanup, hosted by Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT), will be held this Saturday, Sept. 21, at Assateague Island National Seashore and Assateague State Park.
The event begins at 9 a.m. at the North Beach Parking Lot on Assateague Island National Seashore and usually ends by 11 a.m. This event is part of the worldwide cleanup hosted by the Ocean Conservancy.
Free T-shirts will be provided to volunteers (while supplies last) by Delmarva Power. Bring your gloves, bug spray, sunscreen and water. Trash bags will be provided and volunteers will be assigned to a cleanup location and provided a tally sheet for tracking what has been collected.
Some volunteers will be able to access sections of the Assateague beaches on board vehicles provided by the National Park Service, which only permits adults and older children in the vehicles. No dogs or small children (those who require car seats) may be transported in park vehicles.
Private vehicles with an ORV permit are allowed to clean sections of the ORV zone on Assateague Island National Seashore. No other private vehicles are permitted to drive on the beach.
New this year is the “Trash Flotilla” led by the Assateague Coastkeeper, who will lead volunteers who wish to clean up the Assateague bayside by canoe, kayak or stand-up paddleboard.
Bayside cleanup volunteers are asked to register at the National Seashore north parking lot, then meet the Coastkeeper at 9 a.m. at the parking area for Old Ferry Landing on Assateague Island National Seashore. Flotilla volunteers must bring their own boats.
The National Park Service advises although a team from the Army Corps of Engineers recently removed a large cache of WWII unexploded ordnance on the island, visitors may still find individual remnants during the cleanup. These should be left in place and National Park Staff notified of their location.
Those who have volunteered in past years should be aware that Maryland Coast Day is not being held this year and there will only be the morning clean up activity.
For more information on how to volunteer, please contact ACT at 410-629-1538 or by e-mail: [email protected].