July 27, 2023 - San Rafael, CA – The counties of Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino, along with the Leave No Trace organization, have launched a collaborative initiative that will contribute to a Cleaner California Coast.

This summer's campaign launch took place in honor of World Oceans Day and is just in time for Plastic Free July! The Cleaner California Coast initiative seeks to lessen coastal pollution by reducing litter through a coordinated messaging campaign focused on community and visitor outreach, education, and training.

The campaign launch is the culmination of a year-long process of extensive research, community planning, and collaboration with representatives from the three coastal counties. Together with community members and government stakeholders a strategic plan and vision have been developed that will empower individuals and communities to create a cleaner California coast through the practice of Leave No Trace principles.

Over 10 million visitors each year come to the coastline of California and its neighboring counties of Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino. Over 55,000 pounds of litter were picked up from the sensitive coastal environment across the three counties last year alone.

Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni initiated the three-county collaboration in 2022 with Leave No Trace, Marin County Parks, Sonoma County Tourism, Sonoma County Regional Parks, California State Parks, the National Park Service, federally recognized tribes, non-federally recognized tribes, Marin Convention and Visitors Bureau, Visit Mendocino, and the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin in an effort to identify a meaningful path for proactively reducing the growing litter problem along the coast.

“The intercounty cooperation of Cleaner California Coast is remarkable,” said Dennis Rodoni, District Four Supervisor for the County of Marin. “That all of these stakeholders from the three counties are committed to communicating uniform messaging along the Northern California coastline is powerful. It not only reduces competing messaging (which can obscure clarity for visitors), it greatly increases the likelihood of visitors being exposed to these important principles.”

This messaging campaign exists alongside the ongoing Sonoma County Leave No Trace Initiative with the goal to enhance and complement other pollution prevention efforts promoted by public agencies and nonprofits in the adjacent coastal counties.

As visitors and trash exist beyond county lines, Marin and Mendocino Counties are pleased to adopt practices from Leave No Trace and Sonoma County to apply along the Northern California coastline. Together, the Cleaner California Coast initiative will be the framework that allows us to advance collectively. By launching the coordinated initiative, Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties' creeks, bays, and wetlands that connect to the Pacific Ocean will be positively impacted by engaging the public and communicating the pollution prevention plan.

The four key principles we promote include: Bring Reusables (and refuse single use plastics), Find a Restroom (Know Before You Go), Pack It Out, and Hang On To Your Cigarette Butts (and Cartridges). By reducing litter and trash generated in coastal communities, aquatic life, food webs, and habitats will be protected.

This initiative aims to decrease the amount of trash that enters the global ocean, where plastic stays in the environment for hundreds of years. Oceans feed us, regulate our climate, and generate oxygen.

On June 6, 2023, the CleanerCoast.org website launched, providing a broad scope of messaging that the three counties will use to educate and influence visitors during the summer season and beyond. Agencies and organizations partnering with the initiative can share the Leave No Trace-based messaging resources in English and Spanish and take advantage of a new stewardship education series that explicitly addresses visitation and human impact issues along the Northern California coastline.

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Contact Information:

Leave No Trace
Andrew Leary
Director of Sustainable Tourism and Partnerships
Andrew@LNT.org
Phone 303.442.8222