Who says a beach cleanup has to be planned? An impromptu sneak attack can be just as successful and in some ways more rewarding than the planned for and organized type of cleanup. This night happened on a whim and we managed to remove 4 SOLV bags of trash off of one of the most amazing beaches in Curry County. Not an easy task considering the approach and retreat of this particular beach.

Remember, the SOLV fall cleanup is coming up September 19th so get out there and help make our beaches a more pleasureable experience for everyone. Thanks for the help Gus and thanks to the Ranger for his understanding of our after hours, evening beach cleanup efforts. Get some waves!

The kids of Curry County and the Curry Organizers of Surfrider Foundation are asking for donations of good learner surfboards and wetsuits for ages 9-18.

The 4H Surfrider surf club will be a partnership between 4H and the Curry Organizers with the intent to educate the kids on marine conservation, science and to share the stoke of surfing. We will focus on combining the outdoor physical exercise of surfing with a coastal educational component.

Please help the kids of Curry County and give up some of those old wetsuits and boards I know you have stashed in the garage for a good cause. Contact Dave Lacey davejlacey@yahoo.com or (541) 247-6903. Thanks and go get some waves.

Friday July 10th the Brookings grade school summer Kaspar program got a quick beach safety rundown including a lesson in tidecharts and then we moved on to browsing the tidepools at Harris Beach State Park. The kids saw crabs, anemones, various marine plants, stars, snails, mussels, clams and more. We had a great time and it was nice to see so many kids stoked at the beach. Couldn't have a better day at school than school at the beach. Many of the kids found plastic in the high tide line and it directly related to our discussion earlier in the week on plastics in the ocean and conservation. Aloha.

Brookings youth saw how turtles choke on plastic, how dolphins get entangled in "ghost nets" and got a general feeling for why plastics in our ocean is a very serious predicament. The summer program got a quick overview of what Surfrider Foundation is and what we do and then we tackled the problem of plastics in our ocean. We viewed the "Synthetic Sea Story" from Algalita Marine Research Foundation and had a discussion on the movie and what we can do to help. The kids seemed genuinely concerned and understood the importance of keeping trash out of the ocean. These bright kids are the true stakeholders and I think with our guidance they will handle this very important issue and the many others that they will face as they gain maturity. I wish them all the luck in the world!

Greetings, The Curry Organizers and SOLV had a cleanup on July 5th to help alleviate some of the left over trash from the Party at the Port in Gold Beach. The High Schoolers did a good job of cleaning the party site and we finished off what they missed and cleaned the road to the Rogue river mouth and finished off the parking area overlooking the river. With only three volunteers we managed to gather 3 bags of garbage! Thanks for all of your help Cheryl and Sarina.

On Saturday June 13th, we had a BBQ to celebrate the Storm Drain marking at Battlerock beach park in Port Orford. If visitors were willing to listen to a quick spiel about surface water runoff, they were rewarded with locally caught fresh fish, bratts and hotdogs! The BBQ ran from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and we served at least 30 people. A big thanks to the Eagle III crew who caught the halibut and deep water red and to Aaron Longton for the highly coveted salmon! Thank you to our cooks for feeding our hungry visitors (Charlie with the dogs and bratts and Darrell with the fish)! Thanks for all your good work Briana. To see Briana's pictures of the painting and the BBQ visit :

http://picasaweb.google.com/oceanresourceteam/BattleRockStormdrainPainting#

The Curry County Organizing Committee for Surfrider Foundation has teamed up with the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team, Borders Perrin Norrander Inc. (BPN) to do the first installation (hopefully in a series in Oregon) of BPN's stormdrain art concept.

Meet the artist and installation: Saturday June 13th - All Day

Everyone marks stormdrains, but how often do people really connect the message on those little markers with the ocean's creatures as they pass by...we're hoping we have a viral idea here and the video production to follow will hopefully challenge other communities elsewhere to take on similar projects. Great concept BPN, thanks for your partnership on this!