Bay area folks who want to help clean up this god-awful mess

[Bell T.]

Anyone with new info about groups forming to help clean this lovely, fragrant f***n tar off Bay Area Beaches And Birds (that's "babab" for those of us who have already been reduced to flipping the bottom lip in complete wacked-out despair), please post here. The various sites which are trying to point volunteers toward a useful place for their energy all seem to end up at the info sessions which it seems "do not offer training." I was going to drive out to the Headlands Institute for training until I realized they aren't offering training, just a chance to drive my oil guzzling jeep all the way out to rodeo lagoon where I can really get a good, long, stomach-roiling look at the tragedy yet not be allowed to do anything about it. Evidently they are overwhelmed with volunteers (what the frug? why not use some of those volunteers to organize the rest of them? hello?) and are just asking people to "keep checking back" on the website. Sigh.

So thanks for any clear and current information anyone has on what is happening in the next few days. Oh, and since we are well into the apocalypse at this point, any ideas about organizing for quick response to the various disasters we're about to face but are still in serious denial about, would also be welcome.

It's about love.
Bell

[theCryptofishist]

Not a good idea apparently.

Spilled oil is just too dangerous for ordinary citizens to clean up, the experts said...."Don't go to the beach, don't pick up tar balls, don't touch wildlife," said Yvonne Addassi, a wildlife director for the department. "We don't want you to be in contact with the oil. It's a hazardous substance."...
Large numbers of people will "scare away" oil-soaked birds from landing on the beach, Addassi said. And Chris Powell, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said Ocean Beach is "not a place we need a concentration of people even though we know you want to help out."

One man stood up and told the crowd that he had already gathered about 20 pounds of oily beach goop over the past few days and wanted to know what to do with it.

That's part of the problem, Addassi replied. The goop can't be tossed in the trash. It must be disposed of in special toxic waste dumps.

[cowboyangel]

I called the Marin Animal rescue yesterday to try to help an oil soaked cormorant that somehow got up the boat dock on our creek. It got away in the darkness before we could help it. Oil sucks

[Badger]

I helped clean up some birds back around 1984(5?) when the tanker Puerto Rico lost oil out by the Farallons. It was pretty nasty.

Two things I learned from that experience 1) Dawn dish washing liquid is *the* preferred oil removal liquid from sea birds and small mammals. Seriously. 2) Cormorants (actually pelagic cormorants) have long, sharp spearing bills and they'll actually jab at your eyes while you're cleaning them. It's a two person job on this particular bir. One to hold, one to clean.

Cowboy, you might also check the Marine Mammal Center which is where the last large volunteer effort gathered.

415.289.SEAL (7325)

[cowboyangel]

I just got a call from a good friend of mine (ex-greenpeacer too) who said she and about 100 people were turned away ( at the east bay) because the authorities for some reason couldn't handle that many volunteers. Too bad. There's gotta be a way for volunteers to get trained quickly and get to the beaches. Also heard that a bunch of Zen Monks from Green Gulch were arrested today for going down to Muir beach to try to help. Same source. My friend Carol.
I'm on an emergency 7 day job right now, as one of my clients sustained very serious injuries from a 2 story fall. We're remodeling her bedroom and bath to accommodate her wheel chair apparatus. Some of the best contractors in Bay Area are working on this. Tomorrow, I'm gonna head out to the tip of our creek to make sure our large population of clapper rails is ok. I've been filming them for almost a year to document their movements and locales on the creek. Gallinas Creek. http://gallinascreek.org

Thanks for the link and the info Badger.

[mdmf007]

One of the biggest problems in using volunteers for disaster recovery id the lack of personal protective equipment to issue, and the lack of training to utilize it properly, liability etc.

[Bell T.]

thanks various lovelies for offering info, it helps to see your sharings. i was getting the idea that the untrained are generally a hindrance to progress, and i also see we have sufficient bodies to do what needs to be done if we can employ enough sophistication to organize, train, and supply the effort. we have what we need, except i guess for the real leadership and good string-pullers. so i'm musing what steps we might take to go in the direction of an adequate group of trained and stocked civilians with the diplomacy and track record to get the job done in these situations. an idea is to get interested folks on a group email list for easy notification. start talking and start walking. ya know.

bell

[Badger]

<sigh>

Ya know, it just seems that once-upon-a-time you just put on your oldest, thread-bare pair of pants, your old hiking boots, rolled up your sleeves and just fucking did it.

You didn't ask permission to did what needed to be done and unless you were volunteering to pull bodies out of rubble somewhere or fighting a small fire you didn't really need to worry about 'hazards' and liabilities.

People being turned away from a beach who're looking to pick up tar balls is bullshit. Hell, I think it'd be pretty fucking ballsy to 1) NOT ask permission and 2) ignore the 'authorities' who tell you to stop. In fact, challenge them to call LEO and have you arrested for cleaning up a fucking environmental fuck up.

[cowboyangel]

here here. My friend Carol was so disappointed at being turned away at a bona fide education center yesterday, she said she was gonna go out anyway and pick tar balls up....in spite of the risk of arrest. Go Carol!

[Badger]

Go Carol indeed.

[Bob]

Agree w/ mdmf007. Coincidentally, winged tarballs just flew out of my butt.

news -- http://www.sfgate.com/

[cowboyangel]

I'm not surprised.