Out of State Post: Chincoteague, VA (15-Oct-2016)

On Saturday morning my friends left to go check out NASA's launch facility in Wallop's Island. That really wasn't on my list of things to do or see. So I headed over to the National Wildlife Refuge for a trash walk along the beach. I Parked at the visitor's center and walked the boardwalk out to the sand. 

I started down the ocean side of the island, where I found smaller items washed up between the shells. Mostly plastics, I did find some metal bottle caps and coins. Birds on the bay side drew my attention away from the ocean and I crossed over the island to walk that side. For this post I am going to leave out the birds and focus on the trash. My next and last post on Chincoteague will just be about the wildlife I got to see on this trip.

It was very disheartening to see large sections of netting like this washed up in the bay. There was a lot of it and I did not have the means to take it with me on this trip. I was shocked that in a National Wildlife Refuge no one bothers to clean up these large items. 

The trash I was concentrating on were the small plastic items. My goal was to completely fill my pack and I wasn't going to head back until I had that accomplished. Washed up with the trash were many dead Horseshoe Crabs. There were many of these carcasses, yet they were still outnumbered by plastic items.

Plastic bottle caps were really a pain and there were many of them. Some blend in or can resemble shells. I also found some shells can resemble plastic pieces. 

Every bag I found, I filled, then put in my pack. 

In the distance is an old Coast Guard station. I ended up walking past it and it seemed the further I went the more trash I was finding. 

From a distance I spotted something larger on the dunes. It wasn't netting and I went in for a closer look. Balloons! It ended up being a whole bunch of balloons tied together. In most places I wouldn't have walked on the dunes at all. Here it seems there are no restrictions on walking through them which I really don't agree with. I was careful not to walk on any of the grasses or other plants when I retrieved the balloons. The root systems of these grasses help to stabilize and keep these dunes in place. 

After popping all of the balloons I tucked them into my pack and continued on. 

In this post I only have two photos of the netting, but I found much more of it. The largest pile of which was on the other side of the dock in this photo and up in the grasses. Had I had more time I would have been able to get all of the netting. It would have taken several trips out and it wasn't a short walk. If I am able to make it back again, clearing this netting will be a priority. It should be a priority for the National Wildlife Refuge though, most of it that I found was on the edge of important shorebird nesting habitat.

Someone else must have started picking up items and gave up. This milk crate had bottles and other larger plastic items in it when I picked it up. At this point I had already reached my goal of filling my pack and everything I could find to go in the create was just extra. 

This was the best photo I have of the trash. I did pick up a few more items after this on the way back, but the last photo I took was in the back of my car and it didn't turn out well. 

This was the walk I had on the way back. You may or may not be able to see the visitor center off in the distance. I did pick up items at several other stops around the island. It wasn't enough for a post though. The next post will just be about the wildlife I encountered and will be trash free. Should be a nice break from my trashy posts for those of you who read this blog often. 
You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash

Like this project? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA