SAEMS Trash & Bash
SAEMS provides opportunities to help improve the quality of the environment directly by participating in and offering various activities. Our Trash & Bash Committee schedules several different types of clean-up activities for the Southern Arizona Region: Adopt-A-Highway, Wildcat Dump or Undocumented Migrant Dump Clean-up, Santa Cruz River Bottle Jams to remove debris that clogs the watercourse, and park clean-ups. Event Coordinators provide equipment for clean-ups to volunteers who participate. We thank our volunteers with prizes and lunches that follow the activity.
SAEMS Trash-n-Bash Calendar |
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Jamuary 2012 |
February 2012 |
March 2012 |
No Cleanup |
February 11, 2012 |
TBD |
SAEMS Adopt-A-Highway
SAEMS has adopted a beautiful mile along I-10 just east of the Sonoita Highway exit. Volunteers pickup trash every quarter and enjoy breakfast/lunch at the Triple T Truck Stop afterwards.
Past Highway Cleanups
Adopt-a-Highway
On a windy and very cold day, nine dedicated volunteers tackled the I-10 December 10th highway cleanup. SAEMS participants were: Ken Asch, Mike Block, Michael Dieckhaus (and daughter Laurel), Barb Ricca and Dan Williams. In addition, three U of A students helped: Katherine Weingartner, Rebecca Veach and Nicholas Zehrbach. Lunch at the TTT truck stop was enjoyed by all. A total of 28 bags (about 600 pounds) of trash were collected. Barb won the prize for finding and freeing a small lizard from an reusable, insulated coffee cup. The next cleanup will be Sat. February, 11, 2012. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us.
On Sat. Sept. 10th a SAEMS highway cleanup was held along our adopted of Interstate 10. The cleanup effort was lead by Heather Shoemaker. The following SAEMS members participated: Mike Block, Michael Dieckhaus (and daughter Laurel), Bill Ellett (and wife Kay) and Heather. A total of 24 bags of trash were collected. Heather won the prize for most interesting find... a butcher knife and a wedding video. The group enjoyed lunch at the TTT restaurant after the cleanup. Mark you calendar and joins us for the next highway cleanup on Sat. Nov. 12th. More information will follow in a future News Flash.
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SAEMS Community Cleanup Day: Snyder Hill
Saturday, October 8, 2011 made for a beautiful day cleaning up illegal dumping, loose litter and buffelgrass in the desert just north of Snyder Hill, a BLM-owned section of land southwest of Tucson near Ajo Way and San Joaquin Rd. It started as a cool, crisp morning and as we got working it continued to warm up gradually but stayed relatively comfortable the entire time! We were able to completely fill a dumpster of trash (estimated 11.37 tons of waste, including quite a bit of buffelgrass!).
SAEMS members in attendance included B.J. Cordova, Barb Ricca, Eric Fritz, Ken Asch, Michael Dieckhaus and daughter Lauren. Additional participants included Caroline Patrick who is working with Tucson Clean & Beautiful on buffelgrass education and volunteer activities and provided a brief demonstration on buffelgrass removal techniques; Al Mezzano, from the Bureau of Land Management; Steve Buntz, a neighbor, stopped by and helped for a short time after walking by with his wife and dog and seeing us in action; and another neighbor, Maureen Cunningham, also stopped by briefly to talk about the possibility of forming an ongoing cleanup group in the area!
Special appreciation to Southwest Hazard Control for providing a dumpster and hauling services, Tucson Tractor Co. for donating the use of a loader which Eric Fritz maneuvered throughout the project, and Pima County Department of Environmental Quality for waiving tipping fees to enable us to do this project! Your partnership helps to make these projects possible!
The most interesting find of the day was awarded to Barb Ricca, who received a Bookmans gift certificate for finding a giant "dinosaur bone" and a toy concrete mixer truck. (The runner-up: Eric's early find, two toilets! There was also a stray hat from a soccer club in Mexico). After the project, a few of us dined at Los Nopales Restaurant on Kinney Rd. in Tucson Estates. Everyone else missed out on a fun cleanup project and a delicious lunch including a chicken & green chile cheese crisp! Hope to see you at the next community cleanup day.
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SAEMS River Cleanup |
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The SAEMS river cleanup project was a success! At the Drexel Rd. dead-end in Midvale Park, SAEMS volunteers found themselves in a small side channel outfall into the Santa Cruz River, filled with plenty of litter to clean up - and a full complement of thorny trees to work through so that no volunteer left unscratched. A pile of yard debris was removed from the wash as well as 24 bags of litter and 3 shopping carts. Graffiti was also painted over on the wash walls and tunnel just west of where the litter was removed. All of this litter and debris was removed from a very concentrated area, only about 400 feet long and 100 feet wide, where litter collects from a mile-long neighborhood drainage. Ken Asch and Mike Block shared the "most interesting litter item" award, finding the front of a small guitar.
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Adopt-a-Highway
On Saturday November 13th, an absolutely perfect morning for cleaning litter, SAEMS completed the final highway cleanup for 2010. A total of 30 bags of trash were collected. Volunteers included:
- Ken Asch,
- Heather Shoemaker,
- Barb Ricca,
- Michael Dieckhaus and daughter Laurel,
- Dawn Weyer and husband Charles,
- Craig Boudle, wife Joan and daughter Brittany.
The prize for the best find went to Laurel who found a cheerleading pompom.
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Past Wildcat Dump Cleanup
On Saturday, October 16, 2010 a total of 26 people helped to clean up Nogales-Old Vail Connection Rd. from the wash west of Country Club Rd. to just west of Swan Rd. A total of just over 6 tons of trash was removed in two dumpsters, with ONLY 30 tires collected this time (compared to a couple hundred last time, and over 1,200 with the neighborhood about two years ago). The area is looking MUCH better, and it is hoped that with continued follow-up between neighborhood and community volunteers, local landowners, community groups and government agencies that this area will not ever return to the same miserably dirty condition that it was in just a few short months ago and will in fact be improved even more over time!
After the cleanup project a delicious buffet lunch was enjoyed by many of the volunteers at El Doradito Mexican Restaurant on Park Ave. near Fair St. north of Irvington Rd.
Nine members of Southern Arizona Environmental Management Society helped with the project including: Barbara Ricca, Ken Asch, Mike Dieckhaus (plus Laurel Anne), Pamela Beilke, Dawn Weyer (plus Charles), B.J. Cordova, Bob Peshak, Dave Giles, and Jeff Bauer (plus Chad).
Additional community volunteers included:Ngoc Gip, Nancy McKinney, Karina DuPont, Myron Dehaven, Francisca Lira (with PRO neighborhoods) and her family plus several neighbors in the Summit View-Old Nogales neighborhood vicinity who helped clean up the next wash west of Country Club Rd. from where SAEMS members were working.
Special thanks to our project partners: Bob Peshak and Dave Giles from PSC, for providing the dumpsters and hauling service to remove the waste collected by volunteers; Myron Dehaven, owner of Sondown Hauling who was driving down Swan Rd. and saw our project in action on Saturday morning and brought his loader back to assist!
BRAVO for your spontaneous volunteer service contribution to this project. Eric Fritz, who was unable to attend this time but provided bags and gloves on behalf of Southwest Hazard Control for the project; Tucson Clean & Beautiful, for providing road signs, cones and reflective vests on loan; Pima County Department of Environmental Quality - Solid Waste Division, for waiving the tipping fees for disposal of trash from the dumpsters; Pima County Illegal Dumping inspections, and Adult Probation, for their efforts in cleaning up additional dumping around the area both prior to and immediately following this project; City of Tucson Transportation Department, Streets & Traffic maintenance Division for removal and disposal of additional material along Country Club Rd. and Old Vail Rd. that would not fit inside the dumpsters
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