Fairhaven Volunteers Needed for Marsh Island Cleanup

Look out, Fairhaven. This cleaning crew is back for more. Just months after volunteers pulled an astonishing 25,000 pounds of trash and debris from Marsh Island in Fairhaven, Operation Clean Sweep and several local environmental groups are heading back for another major cleanup effort.

The cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, May 16 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the bottom of Taber Street in Fairhaven, and organizers are once again asking the SouthCoast community to lend a hand.

If you saw the photos from the last cleanup, you know just how eye-opening the conditions were. Volunteers uncovered decades of shoreline debris buried along the Fairhaven-New Bedford inner harbor, including plastic bottles, fishing rope, snack wrappers, nips and other waste washed in by the tides.

Volunteers Needed for Marsh Island Cleanup

The cleanup effort is a collaboration between organizations including:

Operation Clean Sweep
Buzzards Bay Coalition
Center for Coastal Studies
Fairhaven Acushnet Land Preservation Trust

Coffee and donuts will once again be provided by Bask, while Domino’s is supplying pizza for volunteers. Organizers ask participants to wear closed-toe shoes and remind volunteers not to touch needles or sharp objects if discovered.

Courtesy Sara Quintal

After the impact of the last cleanup, Operation Clean Sweep's goal is to the momentum going and continue restoring one of the SouthCoast’s hidden natural gems.

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