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Health & Fitness

Lansdale Youth Clean The Shore

Lansdale Youth Save a Marsh at the Jersey shore

It amazes me when I read an article like the one about the mosquito commission fearing the debris will breed mosquitoes, when in fact they where told not to remove the debris - remove the boats yes, but do not remove the debris under any circumstances.

Last weekend, For the Shore.org and Sailors for Sandy - a group I started to clean the wetlands and marshes, bays and lagoons - met and helped clean out an area marsh. More than 100 people from as far as away as Texas, over 65 from a town in Pennsylvania, a church group from the Trinity Lutheran church of Lansdale, met with the help of the Beach Haven West Community Association.

We cleaned the the Cedar Fox Island marsh that is in front of the Mallard Island Yacht club. The contents of three houses that imploded on the tidal surge were cleaned up. There walls, roofs, windows, and floors.

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They filled the equivalent of 3-40 yard dumpsters, with the complete support of Stafford Township, who provided additional garbage cans and a dumpster. This group did more in a half a day by hand than any machines or county cleaning efforts. 

The piles and piles of lumber they pulled from the marshes, all neatly stacked in the right of ways awaiting the county cleaning crews to pick it up remain in place. 

Find out what's happening in Montgomeryville-Lansdalewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Here is a little unknown fact - all wetlands - protected, nonprotected, lagoons, etc. are open to clean you. You need no permits, no special grants no EPA approvals or CAFRA. As long as its cleaning your doing and not altering the landscape.

Sailors for Sandy has a beta app that will map areas that need cleaning. This app is for reporting areas with obstructions in the water, lagoons that are silted in, or marshland that is debrisridden. You can find the website for the app on our site: Sailors For Sandy .

The support for our event was overwhelming. Despite applying for grants, we recieved no funding.  Instead, private donations from some the worlds biggest names in sailing got us  started. And a very famous yacht club's Commodore seeded our start. 

Sailors for Sandy will be having their second event in early February. If you would like to volunteer or donate follow the links below for updates. 

For the Shore Waves of Action's website lists multiple groups and events. Events will be held all year long.

The marshes and wetlands are our first line of defense for storms for ecosystems for our water.  If each person picked one thing up, one plastic bottle, one piece of wood, just that alone would  have a huge impact. 

If you have an area you would like to sponsor or list, please contact Sailors for  Sandy @sailorsforsandy@gmail.com or on Facebook @SailorsforSandy

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