Dr. Karen Bell
Keep Liberty Beautiful
Come to the beach with Keep Liberty Beautiful for our 17th Annual Beach Sweep on September 7, 2024. It is the perfect cleanup for you and your family!
If you like the water, Liberty County and nearby areas have several boat ramps, like Sunbury Boat Ramp, Riceboro Boat Ramp, Half Moon Boat Marine, Jones Creek Recreation, and South Newport River Boat Ramp. You can even walk around the ponds at Bryant Commons for a very relaxing day. Liberty County is a coastal county with many houses right off the water. St. Catherine’s Island is one of the prettiest barrier islands on the Georgia Coast. But it will only be if we protect its sandy beaches and the water flowing around it.
Keep Liberty Beautiful has been sponsoring volunteer beach sweeps with goodhearted local boaters and volunteers since 2007 to clean up the public beach on St Catherine’s Island.
It is hard to believe this somewhat isolated beach would have that much trash unless you realize the significance of marine debris and beachgoers leaving their trash behind. Litter is a sad, continuous problem, whether on the roadside or in a park, but it is unfortunate when it affects our waterways.
During our last Recycle It! Fairs and Shred event, KLB and Oceana invited the community to a special viewing of “We’re All Plastic People Now,’ an award-winning documentary film on the hidden microplastic crisis. The movie asked, “How much evidence do we need before taking action?”
Maine debris can harm habitats, like coral reefs, that are the basis for marine ecosystems. One of the saddest impacts of marine debris is wildlife entanglement. Abandoned nets, ropes, fishing lines, other fishing gear, string, six-pack rings, and other types of marine debris can be death traps for many aquatic life forms. Turtles, fish, and even birds can get tangled up in these items, leading to injury, suffocation, starvation, and even death. Many animals can also mistake debris for food, leading to internal damage and intestinal blockage.
Everyone in Liberty County should be concerned about the importance of water issues. These are issues that all of us, young and old, must confront. Over 40 percent of our county is wet: marshes, wetlands, ponds, creeks, and rivers. We can all help by doing these things: - Keep streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and storm drains free of trash — they can empty into our waterways and oceans.
- When at the beach, park, playground, work, or town, dispose of all trash in the proper receptacles or take your trash home with you. Pick up any debris you see while out.
- Recycle as many items as possible. If they are recycled, fewer items will end up as litter or debris.
- Boaters, fishermen, and beachgoers should remember to: Bring all their trash back to shore for proper disposal in trash cans or recycling bins, including all pieces of fishing line and other fishing gear.
- Consider the materials and packaging you might take to the beach or for a day on the water. Choose reusable items instead of single-use disposable ones. Never dump trash in the water; report any illegal dumping you observe.
- If you are a marina operator, participate in a Clean Marina program. Provide labeled and adequately sized garbage and recycling bins for your staff and customers. Empty trash cans, dumpsters, and recycling bins regularly to prevent them from overflowing. Ensure they are covered and secured so strong winds or animals can’t open them.
The only way to ensure clean waterways is to actively prevent items from ending up as marine debris on land or water. The other meaningful way to fight marine debris is to participate in area cleanups around our community or at our beach sweep on September 7, at St. Catherine’s Island. We need more boat captains.
We hope to see you at our Native Plants Awareness event. We will hand out plants and information at the Farmers Market on Thursday, September 5 and share information on native plants on our Facebook and Instagram pages. We also have the Your State Parks Day Cleanup on Saturday, September 28, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Help spruce up the Fort Morris Historic Site.
You can sign up for any KLB event on our website, www.keeplibertybeautiful. org, or contact us at (912) 880-4888 or klcb@libertycountyga.com to get involved today.