February 2025 Site Reports

On the left, three male volunteers clean up trash. On the right, two female volunteers plant new plant starts.

During this special “month of love,” our naturalist Julie asked volunteers to handwrite love letters to the ocean on paper hearts. Unsurprisingly, the notes were very heartwarming. The shortest month of the year brought us a mix of sun and rain yet lots of smiles as hundreds of volunteers banded together to do good for their community.

Colorful paper hearts with handwritten notes to the ocean

Check out the results from some of our February 2025 events.

Rockaway Beach Cleanup

Highlights: Nearly 100 intrepid volunteers cleaned up Rockaway in the atmospheric river. We had several big groups join us, including Delta Kappa Epsilon from Stanford, Woodland School, The Young Men’s Service League (YMSL – San Mateo), Serra High School, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis, St. Ignatious College Prep, St. Robert, Stanford Marine Energy Team, Mission Marine, and Inspector Planet Beach Cleanup Crew from Santa Clara University.

Notable objects included a cool piece of beach glass, a big piece of sewer pipe, a big piece of rebar, and the grates from a grill.

  • 98 volunteers
  • 55 pounds of landfill trash
  • 35 pounds of recyclables
  • 5 pounds of green waste (weeds)
  • 1,100 cigarette filters

San Pedro Creek Beach Cleanup

Highlights: It was a very wet morning at San Pedro Creek yet eight volunteers, including two teens from Design Tech High School, braved the elements. Of note, our site captain Mark made a special tool for reaching hard-to-get trash.

  • 8 volunteers
  • 110 pounds of landfill trash
  • 3 cigarette filters

Sharp Park Beach Cleanup

  • 36 volunteers
  • 97 pounds of landfill trash
  • 3 pounds of recyclables
  • 528 cigarette filters

Montara Beach Cleanup

  • 42 volunteers
  • 56 pounds of landfill trash
  • 10 pounds of recyclables
  • 178 cigarette filters

Thornton Vista Habitat Restoration

Highlights: Our team was joined by a great group of students from Saint Ignatius High School and other enthusiastic volunteers. Together, they worked on planting natives and weeding Thornton Vista’s newest native garden.

  • 10 volunteers
  • 16 square yards mulched
  • 21 native plants planted
A family of five across four generations poses with supplies at a February 2025 PBC cleanup
A group of volunteers sort through the trash they collected from a February 2025 PBC cleanup
Five teen volunteers pose with a poster that displays results from a February 2025 PBC cleanup
Two female volunteers pose with a poster that displays results from a February 2025 PBC cleanup
Four volunteers pose at a February 2025 PBC cleanup
Teen Site Captain volunteers pose with a poster that shows results from a February 2025 PBC cleanup
Three teen volunteers hold an Apple AirPod case and single AirPod at a February 2025 PBC cleanup

Esplanade Beach Cleanup

Highlights: Our volunteers were truly motivated to do what was needed to make things better at Esplanade. We also welcomed several teens started training to be a part of our Teen Site Captain program.

  • 39 volunteers
  • 102 pounds of landfill trash
  • 11 pounds of recyclables
  • 1,395 cigarette filters

Foster City Cleanup

Highlights: Our events are intergenerational — all ages welcome! — and we witnessed a family with four generations of volunteers come together during February’s Foster City cleanup. Special thanks to Foster City Mayor Stacy Jimenez, Boy Scout Troop 28, the Young Men’s Service League (YMSL – San Mateo), and various schools and individuals who helped clean up 1000 Metro Center and surrounding area.

  • 128 volunteers
  • 96 pounds of landfill trash
  • 38 pounds of recyclables
  • 9 pounds of green waste (weeds)
  • 5,070 cigarette filters

Surfer’s Beach Cleanup

Highlights: There’s nothing better than a sunny morning at Surfer’s Beach to bring out the best in our volunteers. They brought back so much trash along with huge pieces of wood and plastic. Special thanks to Julio at the Harbor who helped with our supplies.

Additionally, February was Site Captain Alex Lee’s last official cleanup before her big move to Nevada with her husband. Thank you, Alex, for so many great Saturday mornings and for being such an enthusiastic steward of the environment.

  • 75 volunteers
  • 150 pounds of landfill trash
  • 43 pounds of recyclables
  • 743 cigarette filters

Linda Mar Habitat Restoration

Highlights: For this event, site captains Michael Ayala and Susan Leiby had the group focus on pulling mallow and wild radish from an area where PBC has previously planted native plants. By pulling out non-native plant species, we give the new/young native plants a chance to grow and spread without as much competition.

Fortunately, at this time of year, many of the invasive plants removed did not yet contain viable seeds. Therefore, they can be used as excellent mulch, protecting the soil while adding nutrients back to the environment that they had removed.

The area of focus was on the hillside below the trail about 200 feet south of the mulch pile. While we were getting our hands dirty pulling weeds, we also found a cool snail that we relocated to a more protected area and two types of fungi.

  • 35 volunteers
  • 750 pounds of green waste (weeds)

Volunteers wanted!

If you’ve made it this far, you must be feeling the love for the ocean. Join us at a March cleanup or habitat restoration. Register online today.