Mark your calendars — it is time for the 2018 Great Islands Clean Up, the annual county wide spring cleaning event during which volunteers collect litter from public beaches and roadways. This year, the cleanup will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Earth Day, Sunday, April 22, rain or shine.

Last year San Juan County held two Great Islands Clean Ups: spring and fall. We have done a spectacular job of cleaning up many of the large items: tires on beaches, abandoned camp sites, illegal dumping spaces. This year, we are working toward a finer-toothed clean of our island, in support of both the land and marine environments which suffer when small plastics and other debris become mistaken for food. We encourage you to create or join a team for both road and public beach clean-up.

The Lopez Community Trails Network is providing the leadership for this year’s Lopez event, with continued support from the Bureau of Land Management, LSWDD, the land bank and San Juan County Solid Waste department. LCTN is comprised of regular trail walkers and the best authorities on the state of our lands and public beaches. It reports that there is much small debris that needs attention. This event proves to be a great time to both walk the beautiful roads and public beaches while improving our ecosystems by removing litter. LSWDD will continue to divert recyclables out of the collected litter at the Lopez dump following the clean-up.

Organizers are still looking for volunteers to help divert recyclables from the collected trash, so if you are interested, contact Nikyta at nikytap@lopezsolidwaste.org or Mike Moore at eroom@rockisland.com.

On the day of the event, there will be the usual fun registration tables in the parking lot behind Blossom Grocery. Here teams can register all their participants, borrow vests, gloves, grabbers and get bags as well as Holly B’s treats and Lopez Coffee provided by SWAP.