On the heels of Chico river clean-up, group holds its Climate Action Day on Saturday
By Odin Rasco
Soaking in the final rays of the summer sun (or, at least, the last official day of summer – the heat would linger on for weeks), community members from Chico and beyond brought out their garden gloves and trash bags and gathered to take part in the 37th Annual Bidwell Park and Chico Creeks Cleanup Sept. 21.
Chico’s creeks receive an annual clean-up to clear away tons of garbage, debris and pollutants from the waterways and surrounding areas. What amounts to mounds of glass bottles, discarded clothes, food wrappers and plastic of all shapes and sizes are littered every year. That debris won’t just clog up local waterways – it can make its way into the Pacific Ocean if it’s not properly disposed of.
The yearly event, put on by the Butte Environmental Council, enjoys a consistently sizable turnout of hundreds of volunteers ready to lend a hand to protect the area they call home. They typically remove 15-20 tons of trash over the course of four or so hours, according to BEC Executive Director Patrizia Hironimus. Though the cleanup day is one of the biggest events of the year for BEC, the group’s work extends across the seasons, with efforts focused on three core pillars.
“Our three pillars are action, advocacy and education,” Hironimus explained. “Those are the overall branches of what we do, and they can intersect. We cleaned up the creek because the ecosystem is dependent on the birds and fish in the hyper-local ecosystem. We advocate for the salmon, some of the last Chinook spring-run salmon which live in Chico and Butte Creek, so if we don’t clean it up, our salmon population will die out.”
With extreme heat becoming a growing challenge for salmon survival, BEC also raises hatchery eggs in their lobby; by bringing in local students to see the hatching salmon, they take action and provide education simultaneously.
Last year, BEC’s educational workshops, including the Classroom Aquatic Education Program which highlights hatching, reached 3,509 youths. Though BEC makes efforts to reach students, education efforts aren’t just for kids. Topics including environmental justice, wildfires and oil recycling are just a few of the issues BEC provides information on; their monthly newsletter is a bevy of information of upcoming events and efforts put on by a wide range of environmental groups in Butte County.
“Anything that’s struggling because of climate change, because of heat, anything that doesn’t really have a voice, we do the advocacy for them.,” Hironimus said.
Prioritization of properly caring for, maintaining and protecting the environment on a local scale has seen its ebbs and flows in American history, from a culture of stewardship shared between the Mechoopda and Maidu tribes who first lived in the region, to the eventual web of roads, power cables and pipes that mark the spread of industrialization (and the tendency to leave a lasting mark on natural systems that comes along with it). BEC has been working to protect the region’s unique environment since 1975, and the impacts are hard to ignore.
One of the first major changes brought about by BEC was when it introduced a multi-use curbside recycling program in 1977. In 1984, working alongside Sierra Club and North State Wilderness, BEC helped 6,000 acres of Ishi, Bucks Lake, and Chips Creek acquire designation as wilderness areas.
Last year, BEC volunteers planted 225 trees, removed more than 26,000 pounds of trash and debris and diverted more than 10,800 pounds of food waste away from landfills. Those milestones are made possible by the more than 850 volunteers who donated a total of 3,507.24 hours of work in 2023 alone, according to year in review statistics.
Those efforts may be a comfort to a growing number of people who find themselves struggling with climate anxiety. A global survey published in Lancet Planetary Health in 2021 indicated that 60% of the 10,000 people between the ages of 16 and 25 who were questioned claimed they were notably worried about the climate, with close to half saying the worry impacted their daily lives.
“Engagement, either through memberships or volunteering, really creates awareness and amplifies our messages,” Hironimous told the News & Review. “It really inspires people; we all have eco-anxiety, especially lately with the extreme heat and the fires, so being in action is a way to mitigate that anxiety, because you can take ownership. You’re putting your body where your mouth is and saying ‘I’m going to do something about it.’”
The next big event for BEC is Community Climate Action Day on Oct. 19. Volunteers can help build bird boxes for the Altacal Audubon Society to aid in the effort to restore habitat for birds in burn scars, providing them a home within the trees. Click here for details to get involved.
By restoring a place for the birds, growth may follow; birds are particularly hands at reseeding the ecosystem. Volunteers will not only be able to lend a hand to the land, but learn more about how birds impact the environment while they do it.
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