Mayne Island Conservancy Society

Composting Survey

The CRD has asked The Mayne Island Recycling Society to take a lead role in working with the community to deal with the upcoming ban on food waste at the Hartland Landfill. Please help us to assess how we, as a community and as individuals, can best prepare for and deal with this issue by completing a short survey. Please click here to take survey.

2013 Beach Clean-up

First a story and photo from Ellen Visser

Ellen writes:

The freezer (in the bottom of the trailer under the boat) was stranded on Georgeson Island for a couple of years and floated off last year some time. We needed quite a few of us to haul it from where the big arbutus fell in the water (near the oyster beds) to the beach access. Mike had a dolly which helped. The old boat had been laying at the Brick dock for years slowly disintegrating. The couch was offered for "free" along Fernhill road near Home hardware and rained on twice after which it was dumped at the Brick dock too. Great haul this year for 6 of us only.

Beach Clean-up Day on Mayne is co-sponsored by the Recycling Society and MICS

And This is How the Whole Affair unfolded on April 14, 2013

Mayne Islands’s annual Beach Clean-up is usually scheduled to coincide with Earth Day on April 22nd. Because we require a low tide on a Sunday for this event, it had to be moved forward to the afternoon of April 14th. But the sun did come out to help!

The amount of debris collected was up considerably compared with that found last year. The number of volunteers decreased to only 67 from a high of over 90 last year. On Monday, 6 adults and some 25 kids from the School hit Miners Bay beach, giving us a total of 98 volunteers.

Congratulations to all—especially the 10 Beach Captains!

Their teams cleaned up 16 or more of our beaches, removing 2634 pounds [1195 kilograms] of debris, compared with 1461 pounds [663 kg] last year—an 80% increase over the 2012 haul. Each year this fluctuation raises interesting questions. Six beaches had considerably lower hauls than last year. But some had much higher—usually based on specific items reported below. We were on the alert for any debris that might have come from Japan—but found none. Although all materials were weighed, the category numbers must be considered estimates as much material was co-mingled. Kilograms are shown below in [brackets]. See below to compare with last year's figures!

The “champion” junk beach this year was again Bennett Bay where 911 pounds were collected by only seven volunteers. Give them a cheer!

Most of our beaches are becoming cleaner each year. This is great news! Bennett Bay’s enormous score included a complete freezer with compressor (260.5 lb), many parts of a boat made of wood and fiberglass (189 lb) and a complete couch left out on the road-side (94 lb). The latter is totally illegal and is subject to a $2000 littering fine. At Piggott/Gallagher Bays, a hot tub cover (115 lb), a fiberglass boat (110 lb) and a dock float (60 lb) were found. At Oyster Bay there was an almost intact plastic canoe (36 lb) and a mooring tire with a long length of heavy metal cable attached (250 lb). Our special thanks to Rick Staehling for redesigning our posters and to Grant Buday for volunteering to open and man the Recycling Depot on a Sunday. Our thanks also go to the Capital Regional District for financial help with the expenses for our annual Clean-up.

This annual event was sponsored by the Mayne Island Recycling Society and the Mayne Island Conservancy Society. We have been fortunate to have had Michael Dunn to do the weigh-in for these events that go back to 1992. Sue Miyazaki again was a great help in managing traffic and the sorting of debris as it came in. We want to thank all the volunteers who helped on April 14th and the school gang who cleaned up Miners bay beach on April 15th. And, most especially, Mayne Islanders thank all of you who ‘clean-up’ each time you use our beautiful beaches.

Earth Day Beach Clean-up – April 22, 2012

Debris was down this year but the number of volunteers increased with 113 turning out at low tide on a sunny Sunday afternoon and 4 adults and 32 kids hitting the Miners Bay beach on Monday for at total of 149 volunteers.

Congratulation to all—especially the 11 Beach Captains!

They cleaned up 16 or more of our beaches, removing 1460.5 pounds [662.5 kg] of debris, compared with 2,915 pounds last year—about 50% of the 2011 haul. This raises an interesting question: Are beach users and boaters being more careful? Did the big storm that we had in March clean our beaches, taking debris back out to sea? Or…?

Although all materials were weighed, the category numbers must be considered estimates as much material was co-mingled.

The “champion” junk beach this year was Bennett Bay where 369.5 pounds were collected.

* Edith Point and Campbell Bay were combined last year for a total haul of 166 kg, compared with a combined 90 kg in 2012.

Some of the interesting changes this year include: many fewer plastic crab trap buoys and tire buoys (49.4 kg in 2012 compared with 146.1 kg in 2011) and only 1 boat hulk. We also retrieved two single tennis shoes and a clog (no feet!) and a child’s swimming suit; a basket ball and a tennis ball; and a toy truck—intact but with a cracked windscreen. Our special thanks to Bette Hawes for redesigning our posters and to Grant Buday and Ron Willick for volunteering to open and man the Recycling Depot on a Sunday. Michael Dunn conducted the ‘weigh-in’, as he has done since we started these events in 1992. Sue Miyazaki was a great help as a second recorder.

Thanks to the Capital Regional District for financial help with the expenses for this year’s Clean-up. This annual event was sponsored by the Mayne Island Conservancy Society and the Mayne Island Recycling Society with support from the Association of Mayne Island Boaters, the School and all the volunteers who helped on April 22nd and April 23rd. Most especially—thanks from all of us to all of you who ‘clean-up’ each time you use our beautiful beaches.

Broom Bash

At least 17 Mayne Islanders had the confidence that the morning rain would dry up by a little after 10 in the morning of Friday June 4th, at least at Barb Baker's place on the East West Road. And so it did. Moist soil made for easy pulling but tricky footing on the road embankment; nonetheless it seems the community team did a great job of carefully picking off "juvenile" plants and a few more senior entities that were in flower. Some of the folks went deeper into the property to remove larger broom on a shallow hillside. There, the Extractigator, kindly loaned without charge from their rental stock by the Mayne Island Building Centre, proved very useful. Refreshments shortly after noon brought a successful morning's work to a close.