FOLLOWUP: Two dozen volunteers remove almost one ton of trash from Fairmount Ravine

(First two photos courtesy of John Lang – above, some of the 24 volunteers who helped)
Under the Admiral Way Bridge, volunteers of all ages helped clean up Fairmount Ravine this past Saturday – and as coordinator John Lang reports, the job was a bit easier this year thanks to added assistance from city agencies:

The 23rd annual Fairmount Ravine Cleanup was a big success on Saturday 3/28. Thank you to the 24 volunteers who participated, young kids to seniors; about half removed trash under the Admiral bridge and the other half climbed the steep hillsides to remove invasive ivy from the mature trees.

The community appreciates SDOT reinforcing the fences at the corners of the bridge. It has reduced the amount of illegal activity under the bridge yet the hard working volunteers removed almost one ton of trash from the ravine!

Over 50 garbage size bags were filled with trash filling up the DOC flatbed truck hauling the trash to transfer station. Fortunately, homeless encampments were less of an issue this year.

(WSB photo by Patrick Sand)
We greatly appreciated participation by officers Flores and Lucas, with the Seattle Police Department, sweeping the area of any potential squatters prior to cleanup and helping with traffic control. Three cheers to our local merchants Metropolitan Market, Starbucks, and Zatz a Better Bagel for their generous support of this community effort.

Thank you to everyone who made this year’s cleanup a success. It is a great example of community pride and putting into action the teamwork necessary to tackle a difficult situation.

The ravine is along Fairmount Avenue, a much-used driving, riding, walking, running route between Admiral and east Alki.

14 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: Two dozen volunteers remove almost one ton of trash from Fairmount Ravine"

  • B March 30, 2015 (1:03 pm)

    Thanks citizens for your volunteer efforts!

  • PG March 30, 2015 (1:04 pm)

    Thanks for all of your hard work!

  • Marge Evans March 30, 2015 (1:43 pm)

    good for all of you. People are such slobs!

  • Jen March 30, 2015 (3:00 pm)

    Thanks for your service! How could I get involved in something like this?

    • WSB March 30, 2015 (3:03 pm)

      Well, keep reading WSB – we published three advance notices about this one over the past two weeks, and it was in our calendar (see the tabs above). Other neighborhoods announce Adopt-A-Street cleanups – there have been at least two in the last month. Get involved with your nearest neighborhood council, because they often are either organizers or at least have the info to announce. Or organize one yourself! I’ll go looking for the city’s “Spring Clean” link offering equipment, bags, other support – TR

  • steve March 30, 2015 (4:26 pm)

    thank you good Samaritans!

  • Alkidoc March 30, 2015 (4:40 pm)

    The residents of the ravine are very grateful for the help in keeping this special place beautiful. Thank you volunteers! I stop to pick stuff up everyday when I take my dog for a walk, but that’s only what is near the road. Thanks for climbing up and keeping the camping debris under control! Love this event!

  • flimflam March 30, 2015 (4:43 pm)

    very nice work – wish it wasn’t necessary though. that is a lot of garbage being tossed around.

  • Norma March 30, 2015 (6:34 pm)

    Thanks to all you wonderful volunteers. And a special thank you to John for his continued faithfulness.

  • Rick March 30, 2015 (6:38 pm)

    DOC truck?

  • West Seattle Hipster March 30, 2015 (7:12 pm)

    Thanks to all of the volunteers who gave their time to make our community a better place.

    .

    Their labor is an unfortunate by-product of homeless encampments, which our mayor wants more of.

    • WSB March 30, 2015 (7:27 pm)

      Some of it is from people under the bridge – but fewer this year than in years past, because of what’s mentioned in the copy. It’s also a lot of trash thrown by careless passers-through, and totally inconsiderate illegal dumpers. Speaking of the encampment plan, we’ll have something on that later tonight – it passed the council, but I haven’t had a chance to analyze it for WS-specific details, compared to what originally was put forward. – TR

  • Sarah Schieron March 30, 2015 (8:07 pm)

    Well done John and team!

  • sgs March 31, 2015 (10:46 am)

    Thank you, thank you! Hope you had a great feeling of community….and maybe had some fun after.

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