Whether it’s a shopping cart, construction debris, soda cans or other garbage, getting those items out of creeks and rivers before it’s dumped onto the beach is the mission of Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean Up Day on the third Saturday in September.

The event coincides with Coastal Clean Up Day, but instead of fanning out on the shoreline, volunteers gather to clean inland tributaries – like San Diego Creek in Irvine, for example. Irvine Ranch Water District hosted a cleanup site at San Diego Creek, adjacent to the Michelson Water Recycling Plant, for the 16^th consecutive year.

Trails 4All has organized the Inner-Coastal Clean Up for 20 years.

More than 100 volunteers gathered to clean up the creek and found a bounty of treasure hidden in the weeds. A group from teacher Angie Oliveras’ Northwood High School advanced placement environmental science class unearthed the grand prize – a couch. Another group from Northwood found a shopping cart and a tent – that showed signs it had been lived in at one time.

Members of Boy Scout Troop 818 found another shopping cart and an airline ticket from two months ago. Other items of interest were construction debris that might have fallen off trucks on the freeway, cans, bottles, cigarette butts, plastic bags, golf balls, a pool ball and a cart wheel, a portion of a Rubick’s cube, pieces of metal and host of fast food containers.

Rick and Jon Lyman were a father and son team. Jon, 17, attends University High School.

“This is something we can do together,” Rick said, placing their filled bags into the trash bin.

“Now, we’re off for doughnuts,” Jon added.

Ban Campbell, a youth pastor, brought several young people from his church and they filled several bags.

“This is a great experience,” he said.

Students participating could receive service hours for their efforts. Over the years, more than 30,000 volunteers have cleaned up one million pounds of trash and recyclables at sites in Orange and Riverside counties.

Looking for expert landscape advise? Come to the annual Urban Landscape and Garden Education Expo on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine.

The facility is located at 7601 Irvine Boulevard. This is the sixth consecutive year that UC Extension and Irvine Ranch Water District cooperated on this event.

Included in the daylong event are guided garden walks, discussions about gardening and irrigation practices, and plant sales. Fifty percent of all household water use is in the yard, so residents can find out how to cut back on watering and save money.

There is no charge for admission to this event. Here is a sampling of what customers can expect at the Open House:

• Visit with gardening industry vendors
• Attend presentations by UC researchers and landscape aficionados
• Check out the various demonstrations throughout the day
• Learn about composting, irrigation and container planting
• Children’s activity – planting seeds
• Sample varieties of fruit grown at the South Coast Research and Extension Center
• Free tool sharpening (limit two small garden tools)
• Random opportunity drawings throughout the day

Visit the South Coast Research and Extension Center website, or contact Tammy Majcherek tjmajcherek@ucanr.edu for more information.

All that trash that winds up on our shores isn’t necessarily left there by careless beach-goers, it might have been tossed onto the ground many miles away. Then it might have found its way into a storm drain, which eventually empties onto the beach.

This is the premise behind Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean Up Day, now in its 20^th year.

Irvine Ranch Water District will host a clean up site for the 16th consecutive year on Saturday, September 17. Drop by the site on Riparian View, just off Michelson Drive, to do your part in helping the environment. The clean up is slated for 8:30 a.m. to noon and no pre-registration is required.

The site is one of 23 such sites that span the foothills to the coast. IRWD joins forces with Trails 4All, which conceived the idea of Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean Up Day in conjunction with Coastal Clean Up Day 20 years ago.

Over the years, thousands of volunteers have participated in cleaning up more than one million pounds of trash and recyclable materials.

Nearly all of inland Orange County is covered, much of the Coyote Creek Watershed along the Los Angeles and Orange County border, and expansion continues upwards along the greater Santa Ana River Watershed.

While Coastal Clean Up Day focuses on cleaning trash from the beach, Inner-Coastal Watershed Clean Up Day concentrates on getting trash out of the tributaries before it hits the beach. Trash dropped on the street ends up in storm drains and eventually finds itself on the coastline.

IRWD’s site is located off Michelson Drive on Riparian View, adjacent San Diego Creek and the San Joaquin Marsh. Please wear closed-toed flat shoes, hats, sunscreen and insect repellant. The entire family is invited to learn about environmental stewardship and students can receive community service hours for their participation.

More information on IRWD environmental programs is available on our website.

Melody Yu was a third grader at Turtle Rock Elementary School in Irvine when she entered the annual “Water is Life” poster contest last March.

Now, her poster has been selected from a field of about 160 entries for publication in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s “Water is Life” student art calendar for 2017.

Melody’s poster was selected as one of five finalists from the IRWD area for regional judging by Metropolitan. The 160 posters were submitted by participating member and retail agencies, of which IRWD is one. The calendar will feature 36 pieces of student art work.

A student recognition event will be held at Metropolitan’s Los Angeles offices later this year where the framed student art work will be on display. After the first of the year, all of the framed art work will be part of a traveling art show to be displayed for a week at a time in the lobbies of water agencies all over Southern California.

We will announce when IRWD will be hosting the art show. For more information on our educational programs, please visit our website.