Good work going forward for the coast.
A foundation formed in honor of Brad Parker, a Sonoma County outdoorsman who died in a climbing accident in 2014, is sponsoring a volunteer cleanup Saturday at Goat Rock Beach.
Volunteers of all ages, who are advised to wear sturdy shoes and gloves, will meet for an orientation at 10 a.m. in the north parking lot at the beach along Highway 1 south of Jenner, said Jeremiah Kahmoson, executive director of the B-Rad Foundation.
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Large objects, as well as small pieces of plastic that litter the coast and harm wildlife that ingests the plastic, will be collected until about 1 p.m., followed by a raffle and potluck meal at the beach, he said. School groups are expected to participate, along with disadvantaged teens from a youth climbing program the foundation sponsors at the Vertex Climbing Center in Santa Rosa.
Parker, 36, a 1996 graduate from Montgomery High School who was a regular at Vertex, was an accomplished rock climber and world traveler, as well as an avid surfer and mountain biker. He died in a fall while climbing alone on a rocky ridge in Yosemite National Park on the same day he had proposed to his girlfriend, Jainee Dial, in August 2014.
The Sonoma Coast Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, Clean River Alliance, Russian Riverkeeper and the Rock, Ice and Mountain Club will help the stage the cleanup, with the club handling work at Sunset Boulders, a popular climbing area above Goat Rock Beach.
The foundation, established a year ago, held a cleanup at Salmon Creek Beach last March and puts on monthly beach cleanups on Kauai, where Brad’s parents, Gayle and Bill Parker, and his brother, Matt Parker, live.
Carpooling to Saturday’s cleanup is encouraged due to limited parking and volunteers are asked to bring buckets for collecting refuse.
For information, go to http://www.b-radfoundation.org.
You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.