July 5th- Mondays are important, they are the best day to pick up litter. Cachuma was hot and extra beautiful today! About 120 lbs removed in less than 6 hours. I finally decided to show the Rangers what I removed, which is something I have never done before. I’ve been cleaning the waterline in the extra dry months for almost a decade, they never really knew. They were very friendly and receptive.
July 6th- got plenty of litter on the 154 today! Very hot out. Sad how much new litter there is here, as I picked up these same spots targeting drain grids about 4 months ago. I also caught a VERY lively Opossum that got trapped in a classroom. Wildlife Care Network still requested it be brought in, so off to WCN it went.
July 7th- Today I relocated a family of ducks. A mom and her 6 TINY ducklings were stuck in a historical building downtown. Mama was very protective, but flew away initially. After waiting over an hour, she came back. This time I got her. You have to get her first, or she will leave her ducklings. Its also difficult releasing them. I even taped their release. View the video here:
July 8th- picked up two spots today, enjoyed the change. Started at the bottom of the 154, then ended at a beach encampment. This encampment is special to me, I once lived there for over 4 months. I left this place free of litter. I stocked the camp with enough firewood for the season, and a raised metal fire-pit with a screen on it. Someone brought a ton of garbage into the camp and used up the firewood. I broke my one day record, I removed over 1000 lbs today! Very happy guy these days.
July 9th- freaky Friday! I got plenty of litter today. Focused on the top of Painted Cave near HWY 154. I also cleared some drain grids on the 154 while I was there. I have worked my way up Painted Cave before, in 2012. I have now cleaned the entire painted cave.
July 11th- I picked Painted Cave Road and the 154 today. Lots of people honking and waving today. Makes me smile. The area of 154 I picked up today, is one I picked up in March of 2021. Saddened to see how much litter had returned, but happy someone’s there to pick it up. I also caught an injured Seagull and took it to Wildlife Care Network. Broken Wing, is good hands at WCN.
July 12- New Monday tradition: Lake Cachuma. It was so beautiful back there I almost stayed for the night. Even found free firewood. Tried to convince them to let me camp for free, I have to meet with the boss out there soon. I’m told his name is Grahm. Stay tuned for updates.
July 14th- Back to the bottom of Painted Cave at HWY154. I’m almost done on the road, then Ill be focusing on the parking spots with views and litter on Painted Cave. I also caught an Opossum and brought it to Wildlife Care Network. It was in pretty bad shape.
July 15th-I spent 3 hours in one small area today. The lowest parking with view on Painted Cave. I really am saddened by the shameful amount of litter that has stacked up here. I cleaned this exact spot about 8 years ago. Its worse now than it was then! Glad I picked it up. Had a thought today: maybe I need to install waterproof signs in these types of areas, hoping to deter the litterbugs from littering where I just cleaned. I was in the SB News Press today. Pretty cool.
July 16th- another 4 hours in one small parking area with a view on Painted Cave. Im now sporting Heal The Ocean shirts. Heal The Ocean is such an inspiring organization. The impact they have on the planet, is compelling to say the least. I’m proud to be working with them on several upcoming projects.
July 17th- More work on the 154. So much to be done here, I really hope to find a way to deter the litterbugs in areas like this. So beautiful up there, beautiful and underappreciated.
July 19th- Following a lead given to me by Heal The Ocean, I picked up Rincon Beach, and the areas around it. I was very happy to see a very clean parking lot, trail, and beach. I also found an abandoned homeless encampment. I will be leaning on Hillary to teach me how to clear the legal hurtles required to remove the litter swiftly and safely.
july 22nd- after a two day break from litter removal to work on this website, i was out seeking abandoned encampments this afternoon. found two, pinned on map for next time. spent the morning responding to a litter report. after two hours in the arroyo burro creek, the pile of litter or caller described was not located. we are contacting the litter reporter, and plan to continue the search tmw or saturday.
July 23rd- I’ve worked over 80 hours in the last 7 days. Today is a day to recharge and set goals for next month, with a plan to achieve them. Tons of good news to come in August, stay tuned. Love and light- AndrewV
July 24th- After spending a day to survey the area, I started removing litter from the Rincon bluffs and seal sanctuary. Amazing how much there still is out here. I know my cohorts have combed this area recently, this may be an annual pick up location. I got 6 bags full of litter. The pickup location is down the bluff near the tracks. This is a steep trek back up to the drop location. I was only able to take 3 bags up, left 3 more for tmw.
July 25th- Back out to Rincon bluffs. I’m finding a trend: it appears that the dirt turned by the railroad maintenance adjacent to the railroad has litter turned into it… I’m finding the same few items repetitively in this dirt. Got another 7 bags, at least 400 lbs today. I again, was unable to remove it all today. There is now a pile waiting for me there, 7 full bags. Really getting exhausted in this area! Its so hot, with zero shade. BUT: there’s still work to be done. Hopefully I can finish it all tmw.
July 26th- Last day of pick ups at Rincon bluffs. I started on Saturday, above the pier and seal sanctuary. I have certainly blanketed this area. I got another 9 bags today. I was only able to carry 4 of them up to the drop location. There are 16 bags near the tarcks. I reported the pile to Ventura Parks, lets see if they get it.
July 28th- Ventura parks didn’t find the bags. HUGE pile, hard to miss. I’m not certain they even came out. Im tired of waiting, so Ill do it myself, no worries. Two trips to the drop off, got another 8 bags up to the drop location. Ill Be back tmw, tons of important efforts being made. Looking forward to sharing the good news when it arrives.
July 29th- RINCON BLUFFS ARE DONE. I went back to finish removing the litter I bagged up, and someone must have helped me out! What a great thing someone did for me, for our planet and sweet mother ocean. Total of 1200 lbs of litter removed from Rincon Bluffs in 4 days. Video available at EC-TV
July 30th- I worked with two good friends today, one of them is also Earthcomb Webmaster, Jeremy Chapman. We cleared a mile of North Cathedral Oaks, also Calle Real near Storke Rd. We removed about 600 lbs of litter in 5 hours. Today began our work on the 20 mile stretch of Cathedral Oaks/Foothill Rd.
August 4th- Earthcomb has been commissioned to help clean up Old Spanish Days Fiesta in Santa Barbara. Today was day 1 of 5. A preliminary walk in target downtown areas exposed some VERY clean streets. There was not much mess made today, Fri and Sat will be much worse.
August 5th- very hot day! I focused on Haley, Cota and Ortega. Picked up 6 bags total today. Also bumped into an old friend.
August 6th- covered Sola to anapamu from chapala to anacapa. 8 full full removed.
August 7th- had help today. Cleaned from guitierez to Ortega, chapala to anacapa. All side streets. Got about 18 bags in total. Estimated 600 lbs of litter today alone.
August 8th- final downtown clean up of Old Spanish Days. Had two helpers today. Accumulated about 12 bags total. We split up and covered our entire target area in one final clean up effort. The streetsweepers come in tmw morning. Our beautiful downtown area is clean once again. Approximately 1,300 lbs over litter removed from the target location. This video is available on EC-TV
August 10th- Litter was reported behind guard tower at Sea Meadow, and gated beachfront housing community in Montecito. It turned out to be quite a lot more litter than anticipated. Approximately 500 lbs of litter. Video on EC-TV
August 18th- started working on a new location today; couple of huge abandoned encampments near fairview. Used an entire roll of 48 bags. Found a huge pile of needles, and a bunch of big bags of wet hissing batteries. I used my 3mm bags for the batteries and needles. The location should be clean by tmw night.
August 19th- after realizing the litter pile might have to wait to be picked up, Earthcomb met all the neighboring business owners. Florist, Lumberyard, Nursery and Cox were all informed of the cleanup and possible delay with Marborg. The nursery owner picked up litter as well, great guy. The group of encampments are officially clean. Earthcomb used more than 100 bags to remove about 1 ton of litter.
August 21- Earthcomb is working with Heal The Ocean. HTO has surveyed the greater Santa Barbara area for encampments, this is a very valuable resource. The encampments are all plotted on a map and numbered in a spreadsheet. Today, Earthcomb began working on that list with tenacity. Earthcomb found a HUGE group of encampments in the San Jose Creek by following HTO’s survey list. Most of the camps here are abandoned, but sherriffs need to be involved. Made a video of damage at this group of camps, powerful stuff. www.earthcomb.org/ec-tv
August 24th- Earthcomb met with the sheriff Ben Sandu at this group of encampments in order to plan out the jibe with Marborg. MR Sandu is a wonderful person to work with, and has really helped Earthcomb get in its feet. We spoke to local business owners who technically own most of the property these camps are on. Arranged a dumpster location, trying to get Amtrak to approve a second dumpster next to the train tracks. We will need rakes, shovels, and wheel carts. HUGE job.
August 25th- spoke with Hillary. Hazmat disposal materials were ordered. Officer Ben Sandu has 300 Caltrans bags to donate to the cause. Located 3 paid helpers. Earthcomb also spoke to Ralphs manager ‘Debbie’, about returning all the shopping carts that are around the encampments. THIS IS BECOMING A DREAM COME TRUE. MORE GOOD NEWS TO COME SOON!
Tuesday, September 31st- My two new workers showed up, and did very well. They worked hard, and seemed very happy to be working. There have been a lot of hypodermic needles at this job, we collected at least 60, most of which did not have protective caps on the needle. We start a new group of abandoned camps at Goleta Beach tmw. This is great, because Earthcomb has targeted Goleta Beach litter for many years. (7 hours each for J and K)
Wednesday, September 1st- I located a new pickup site: site ‘G’ on our map. Its several huge camps, and another huge one 200 yards due north. They are adjacent to a creek, and clearly abandoned. These camps are on the 101, so we can use the bags Caltrans donated and leave them in a pile on the 101. Sheriff Ben Sandu will call Caltrans to have them removed. We will start this camp Monday unless something else more urgent pops up.
Thursday, September 2nd- we broke ground on our next project- the Goleta Beach Encampments. Two encampments completed today. We got a good start on the biggest camp, and cleaned the general area up as well. (R and D- 7 hours)
Friday, September 3rd- many more hours cleaning the main camp at Goleta Beach. We plan to begin at the abandoned ‘Mararitaville’ camp tmw. We filled an entire dumpster with hundreds of bike tires today.
Saturday, September 4th- one worker and I handled the Margaritaville camp today. Its all bags and stacked, awaiting on field advisor Harry Rabin to arrange its removal. Harry is a wonderful part of our team, and we are very fortunate to work with such an influential and powerful force of good.
Monday, September 6th- Labor day. More progress made at Goleta Beach. Mostly just the few smaller abandoned camps to clean. Scheduled a big day at “Site G” tomorrow. Updated the website to reflect new numbers and Activity Journal log. Also designed an Earthcomb timesheet, to keep up with all of our workers. ALSO got a folding clip board and ‘at a glance’ calendar for organizational purposes.