The Lincoln Log

Photo by Colleen Ma

Thousands of gallons of foul black muck spread throughout the San Francisco Bay late last year, damaging countless beaches and marine wildlife. Concerned citizens and beach frequenters flocked to the seaside in huge numbers day after day. Over 500 people, both young and old, were already involved in the relief effort at the start of the third day.

Word was rapidly distributed through word of mouth – and the effects were enormous.

“It was inspirational,” said Lisa Craig Gautier, with a smile. “I think it’s just the beginning. It’s people power, [and] people want to be involved. That’s a good thing.”

The worst spill in nearly two decades, the Cosco Busan oil spill’s damage stretched for miles, making the pathway to revival looking desolate. However, with the help of hundreds of workers and concerned volunteers, much progress was made.

Just about two months after the spill, roughly 20 percent of the oil has been recuperated, and unified command (government controlled clean up crews) were allowed to stop with their clean-up activities. 20 percent is considered extraordinary, although it also means that the other 80 percent has either dissolved or sunken into the sand on shore.

Volunteers still in distress over the situation continue their clean up efforts on the shore, some mopping up oil droplets with a rather unique Earth-friendly creation – hairnets. When the spill first occurred, MatterOfTrust.org, an ecological public charity that concentrates on artificial surplus, natural surplus, and eco-education, donated thousands of oil-absorbing hairnets to the relief effort. Hair, a natural oil absorber, is woven into mats and is used somewhat like a sponge directly on oils. Extremely effective, it is later disposed of in another unique, Earth-friendly way (there are mushrooms that eat these oily hair mats).

Though there are almost no organized oil spill clean-ups or trainings today, everyone should not be discouraged from helping out the environment. Many people have been, and are still, cleaning up the beaches for everyone’s sake.

“To be honest, we were out at the beach and doing our own clean up so much of the time, we’re only just now hearing all the stories of the official cleanup,” said Gautier, the executive director and founder of MatterOfTrust.org.

Most of the clean-ups required about two hours of training, and most volunteers had to be at least 18 years of age. Though some were discouraged by this, elementary school children everywhere felt the need to help out. Amy Jussel, the founder and executive director of Shaping Youth, an online blog on the media and marketing influence on youth, wrote of her 12-year old daughter’s distress on the situation.

“[My daughter’s] ballistic about the way this has been handled,” wrote Jussel. “and it would do absolutely no good to point out to her that this kind of angry emotion is probably why the ‘no kids under 18’ rule is in effect. It’s important not to [let her] feel defeated, especially when disasters like this occur…But she’d still prefer to be helping at the disaster site in S.F. directly with the wildlife.”

Gautier encourages all youth to help out, saying, “There is more to protecting the environment than talking about it or donating money to it. If you really, really want to connect to nature, then you need to go outside and be active.”

Tiny droplets can still be found on certain beach shores, and one person’s small helping hand can certainly make the biggest difference.

“We all have a tremendous responsibility to take care of[the San Francisco Bay] because of its legacy,” said assistant principal Barnaby Payne.

“The Bay really doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to our children and our grandchildren, and we want them to have a place to live that is clean and safe. Despite this terrible tragedy and mistake, I think it’s more important than ever that we are conservation minded, [and] that we consider the environment not only as a city, or as a state – but individuals.”