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Paddling For Wildlife In The San Diego River

By Nicholas McVicker / News Editor, Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published February 28, 2012 at 9:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

Special Yearly Cleanup In River Estuary Nets Garbage Bonanza

Paddling For Wildlife In The San Diego River

The Southern Wildlife Preserve stretches along three miles of the San Diego River west of the Interstate-5 bridge and south of SeaWorld.

It is one of the last urban estuaries of its type remaining in California. This section of the river is home to endangered birds and a stop on the Pacific Flyway.

Once a year, volunteers working with the San Diego River Park Foundation, use kayaks and canoes to cleanup the river while other volunteers collect litter along the shoreline.

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Rob Hutsel with The San Diego River Park Foundation says only 5 percent of the original coastal wetlands remain in California and this is one of those areas. It is also home to endangered birds.

"One of those is the clapper rail which is very endangered," said Hutsel. "Beautiful, you don't want to see the trash out there anything in there eventually makes it out to the ocean and onto our beaches."

Volunteers navigate the thick reeds in the estuary to remove tennis balls, plastic bottles and other trash.

There are a lot of tennis balls, plastic containers and other garbage hiding in the reeds.

You really can't see how much trash and litter is in the reeds of the estuary until you get in the water.

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Matt Cochran of Poway found his share of plastic and other trash during the 2012 cleanup.

"I’ve got the making of ...tennis balls...flipflops, Styrofoam," said Cochran "found a whole lunch!"

It is Cochran’s second year pulling trash from the estuary. He unloaded a full boat load and then paddled out to collect more.

Rob Hutsel with the River Park Foundation said the three-mile estuary serves as a sort of barometer for the overall health of the river.

"It's the end of the pipe...health of the rest of the river...all pollutants in river washes down here and so it tells us how healthy it is."

He said they’re seeing less trash in the river, but still, the overall water quality for the river rates a "C" grade.

The numbers from this year's cleanup: 54 volunteers removed 1,200 pounds of trash, 107 pounds of recyclables (such as plastic) and the most unusual item was a message in a bottle.

Corrected: April 16, 2024 at 5:49 AM PDT

Video by Nicholas McVicker

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Nicholas McVicker

Nic McVicker is a news editor at KPBS where he has worked since 2011. He grew up in the Midwest until the snow blew him and his family out West to San Diego, where he enjoys local craft beer, sports, and a day at the beach. McVicker has had the pleasure of serving the San Diego community by telling their stories. As an editor, he is dedicated to helping KPBS reporters best serve the audience with diverse sources and unique stories.

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Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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