On a sunny summer day, when kids could be surfing, or hanging out with friends, students from the Climate Corp Leadership Institute’s summer youth program volunteered to clean up one of the most notorious illegal dump sites in south County, Murphy’s Crossing. The volume of garbage left downstream from people living in or driving through the dry river corridor was disheartening at best, disgusting in measure.

There are migrating steelhead in the Pajaro River, as well as a broad diversity of other wildlife. The health of this vital corridor is being compromised by human negligence and debris. The student volunteer group coordinated by Wetlands Watch were joined by members of the community, Ramon Gomez from the 4^th district, Filipe Hernandez, of the American Legion, Dick Solano from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office and the Community action Board of Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz Public Works managed traffic. Justin Scurich, a partner of Creekside Farms, provided bathrooms and water. County superintendent Alexander was very helpful organizing a crew and trucks for heavier materials. Murphy’s Crossing will be monitored in the future.

In total 560 cubic feet of garbage and 2.5 truckloads of mattresses, plastic crates, tires, bottles, and trash were removed from the roadway and the river, helping to protect the sensitive natural habitat of the Pajaro River corridor.