Heal the Ocean February 2022 E-Letter
In this E-Letter:
HTO to Release Results of New Homeless Survey
Andrew Velikanje/Earthcomb Funded by HTO Donor to Clean Up Homeless Camps
Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival to be held March 18-19
Partnership for Resilient Communities Receives Prestigious Prize
Kirby-Jones Foundation Donates to HTO in Honor of Ralph Clevenger
Cate School Tackles Beach Cleanup at Carpinteria State Beach
Become a Dog Bag Dispenser Sponsor!
HTO to Release Results of New Homeless Survey
Heal the Ocean’s Field Advisor, Harry Rabin, and his company, On the Wave Productions, LLC., is finishing up a second update to Heal the Ocean’s “Without Housing Survey”, now that his team has finished up the fieldwork completed from February 14-18, 2022. The On the Wave’s team walked the train tracks from Goleta to Summerland, using drones and camp visits to collect images and statistics on homeless encampment status and camp occupancies, and now will compare findings to previous surveys (February & August 2021). Initial analysis shows that active encampment numbers have decreased since August 2021, but the number of abandoned encampments remains the same despite the removal of abandoned encampments in those same areas.
With this information, the City and County of Santa Barbara will be able to gauge how much work is expected for abandoned camp cleanups going forward. The geographic coordinates of each camp as well as the data on camp numbers, occupancy rates, and fire risk will be publicly accessible following the completion of the survey and data analysis. The data will be available on the Heal the Ocean website as well as the websites for both the City and County of Santa Barbara.
Heal the Ocean has been involved in cleaning up abandoned homeless camps because they are often in environmentally sensitive areas or next to waterways, and the camps often contain trash and human waste that threaten the ocean environment.
To learn more about Heal the Ocean’s involvement in this issue, please click here.
Map showing active and abandoned encampments in south Santa Barbara County
Andrew Velikanje/Earthcomb Funded by HTO Donor to Clean Up Abandoned Homeless Camps
Andrew Velikanje at work on a homeless camp cleanup in February 2022.
Due to a generous donation from The M and M Foundation, Santa Barbara, Andrew Velikanje and his Earthcomb crew are cleaning up abandoned homeless camps in Montecito and elsewhere in Santa Barbara County. The Montecito work is being done in coordination with Montecito Association's Sharon Byrne, who has led a hugely successful “Functional Zero” campaign to get homeless people into housing. Andrew is one of her success stories. He now has a licensed business, Earthcomb, and is working with both HTO and the Montecito Association in camp cleanups, the latest one was a camp inside Sea Meadows, near Hammonds Beach, which was cleaned out during the week of February 21, 2022. Andrew also helped in the HTO “Without Housing” Survey, the results of which will soon be released.
Heal the Ocean is grateful to The M and M Foundation, which acted on inspiration felt by both the work of Sharon Byrne and Andrew! To see Andrew's work, visit the Earthcomb website.
Join HTO at the Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival March 18-19!
The Santa Barbara Surf Film Festival (SBSFF), to be held March 18-19, 2022at the Community Arts Workshop in Downtown Santa Barbara, will be celebrating Santa Barbara’s rich surf history - showcasing surf cinema, live music, and art. Heal the Ocean will be among the local charities and vendors tabling at the event, and in addition, HTO Board member and surf film producer Heather Hudson will be screening her award-winning film about surf pioneer Marge Calhoun, “93 – Letters from Marge” live in Santa Barbara for the first time. “93” will be screened on Saturday, March 19 at 5 PM as the opening film for the Duke Kahanamoku bio, “Waterman.” The feature film for Friday, March 18 is “Searching for Tom Curren,” another exciting surf episode.
Heal the Ocean will be tabling on Friday and Saturday, so stop by to pick up our 2021 Newsletter or to purchase t-shirts, hats, and other merchandise…see you there!
Tickets can be purchased here.
Santa Barbara's Partnership for Resilient Communities to Receive Prestigious Award
Lt. General Russel L. Honoré (Ret.). Image from Keppler Speakers.
On Sunday, March 13, 2022, Lt. General Russel Honoré (Ret.), a decorated 37-year army veteran and widely noted for his command of Joint Task Force Katrina during post-hurricane New Orleans, will be in Santa Barbara to present a prestigious award to The Partnership for Resilient Communities (TPRC) for its work in installing Geobrugg “ring nets” in high-risk canyons following the tragic Montecito mudflow in 2018.
Headed by former Santa Barbara Fire Chief Pat McElroy, the TPRC group is being recognized for its work to protect human life following one of California’s deadliest disasters. The mudflow precipitated by the horrifying Thomas Fire, claimed 23 lives and injured 150 others, and wiped out numerous homes and properties in Montecito.
The Partnership, which has produced significant funding, as well as scientific studies, on the Ring Net project, is receiving the prestigious Corporate Crisis Response Officers Association's (CCROA) 2021 National Service Award, which will be presented by General Honoré to the group in a private ceremony in Montecito, to be covered by the press. HTO Executive Director Hillary Hauser is honored to be included as a board member.
Kirby-Jones Foundation Donates to HTO in Honor of Ralph Clevenger
Ralph Clevenger
Ralph Clevenger, a noted filmmaker/photographer who was a senior faculty member at Brooks Institute of Photography with over 33 years of teaching Natural History Photography, Location Lighting, Video Production, and Undersea Photography, is being honored by a significant grant to Heal the Ocean by the Kirby-Jones Foundation of Westlake, California. In notifying us of this award, Brynn Crowe of the Kirby-Jones group made mention of her Foundation’s admiration for Clevenger’s continuing passion for the natural world by specializing in location photography and video projects of eco-travel, environmental portraiture, wildlife, and undersea subjects. He is the author of the book “Photographing Nature,” and shows no sign of slowing down following his retirement from teaching.
Cate School Tackles Carpinteria State Beach in HTO Cleanup
Cate students at Carpinteria State Beach. Photo by HTO Operations Assistant Sydni Trigueiro.
For the Cate School Day of Service on February 23, 2022, a team of Cate students tackled Carpinteria State Beach in an HTO-led cleanup. In just a couple of hours, students collected six bags of trash that included Styrofoam, pieces of netting, straws, clothes, food wrappers, and microplastics tangled up in kelp and driftwood. The students even dug out a plastic bag filled with clothes and trash from under the sand! We thank the staff and students of Cate School for initiating the project, and we encourage everyone to give back to the ocean by organizing a beach cleanup.
Please contact the HTO office (805) 965-7570 for free gloves and bags and an information sheet to get started on a beach-cleanup project.
Cate School students gather after cleaning the beach. Photos by Sydni Trigueiro.
Become a Dog Bag Dispenser Sponsor!
As a part of Heal the Ocean's Dog Bag Program, we offer advertising sponsorships on dog bag dispensers at beaches and parks throughout the City and County, and we fundraise from our beloved dog-owning supporters in order to support restocking these dispensers with dog bags.
We invite you to join our program and became a sponsor today! There are dog bag dispensers available in great locations in both City and County parks. HTO will work with you to design and print custom stickers for your dispenser, and everything else is taken care of – printing, maintenance, and stocking of bags. Your business or four-legged friend is showcased for a full year and you are helping to keep the environment clean.
If you are interested in sponsoring a dispenser, please contact info@healtheocean or call (805) 965-7570.
AVAILABLE COUNTY DISPENSERS: Rocky Nook, Oceanview (Summerland), Jalama Beach, Calle Barquero Open Space, Ennisbrook Open Space, Town & Country Open Space, University Circle, Rhoads Neighborhood Park
AVAILABLE CITY DISPENSERS:Andree Clark Bird Refuge, Hidden Valley Park, Hilda Ray Park, Laurel Canyon Open Space, Los Robles Park, Orpet Park, Parque de los Niños, and Skofield Park
Have a good weekend, everyone, and if you don’t mind, please take time to offer a prayer for the Ukrainian people, who are going through a horrifically dangerous time.
Thanks for your support,
Hillary Hauser & all of us at Heal the Ocean
HTO thanks the Poehler-Stremel Charitable Trust
for providing funds to publish our newsletters and e-letters!
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