22 Apr ‘More People are Starting to Care’: Volunteers Celebrate Earth Day with Cleanup, Festivities in Richmond

Volunteers cleared all sorts of waste from Wildcat Creek on Saturday, even strollers.

Photo essay, Joe Porrello

To celebrate and honor Earth Day, people around the Bay Area participated in cleanup and restoration projects. In North Richmond on Saturday, about 30 volunteers began cleaning garbage out of Wildcat Creek at 9 a.m. and continued for two hours.

The events were led by the Watershed Project, an organization dedicated to education and action surrounding clean Bay Area waterways, and Urban Tilth, which has programs to build employment opportunities, a more sustainable food system, and a healthier community.

 

Multiple volunteers in North Richmond said they were surprised by how much garbage accumulated in Wildcat Creek in just the year since it was cleaned last.

But in six years with Urban Tilth and as co-manager of the watershed restoration crew, 29-year-old Paola Casillas says she has seen the creek in much worse condition.

“It seems like more people are starting to care,” she said. “We really enjoy having these cleanups because it’s a way to get the community to build a relationship with the land… if people think of a space as theirs, they’re more likely to keep it clean.”

 

Echoing her sentiment was volunteer Vanessa Pratt, 39.

“It’s spiritual, honoring the interconnection between us, animals and nature,” she said.

 

Participants who had never met moved like a well-oiled machine, trudging through tall vegetation and muddy waters to remove all sorts of trash — a baby carriage, hosing, empty spray paint cans and countless tires.

 

Fittingly, with the following day being Easter, Pratt likened the cleanup to an Easter egg hunt of sorts.

Casillas spoke about how happy she was with the turnout of volunteers. Organizers provided trash grabbers and gloves, along with garbage bags and buckets — the latter of which they ran out of due to a larger than expected crowd.

 

“When I first started, not a lot of people would come out to our events, so it’s been cool seeing the transition to having more hands on deck,” she said. 

Pratt says the amount of people who came to clean Wildcat Creek gives her hope.

“It kind of calibrates the nervous system to know there are like-minded humans out there and, more so, like-acting humans — because I think a lot more people believe in this than who actually do something about it,” she said.

 

And Casillas says the disposal project helps more than just Richmond community members because everything that comes through Wildcat Creek drains to the bay.

 “All of this trash turns into microplastics, which you don’t want in the water — especially if you do things like eat fish,” she said.  “If you take care of the land, then the land takes care of you — clean air, water and food.”

 

Pratt doubled down on Casillas’ notion.

“Cleanliness is health; when all of these plastics break down into our environment, it makes us more prone to sickness,” she said.

Following the cleanup, volunteers gathered for a free lunch before heading over to the Shields-Reid Park and Community Center for festivities like live music, baseball, food trucks, eco-friendly booths, face painting and a petting zoo.