Volunteers to clear deserted carts, trash from Merced’s Bear Creek. Here’s how to help
The Merced community is mobilizing this weekend to excavate at least 57 deserted shopping carts and other trash mucking up Bear Creek.
Dubbed Operation 57, the two-day cleanup kicks off at 8 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at Bear Creek, near the 16th Street bridge.
Organizers say they’ll take as many volunteers as they can get.
“To me, that area could be one of the coolest, most beautiful areas in town,” Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto said of Bear Creek. “There’s really an endless amount of work.”
So much trash has accumulated at the creek over the years that Serratto said a cleanup crew recently discovered a shopping car from Longs Drugs. That company was bought by CVS in 2008, with all stores rebranded the next year.
Serratto said he personally counted 57 abandoned shopping carts – which he calls shipwrecks – in and around the creek, some laying on the ground, others partially buried in the mud. But the mayor said he believes volunteers will likely discover many more carts during the weekend cleanup.
New nonprofit formed with mission of Bear Creek cleanup
This weekend’s cleanup is organized by Merced Walks and the Bear Creek Yacht Club. Merced Walks has spent years cleaning up the city, but the “yacht club” is a brand new nonprofit formed late this year through the efforts of Serratto and other Merced community members.
Serratto and a friend coined the name while out on the creek one day in August, preparing for a big cleanup. While the moniker was originally tossed around as a joke directed at volunteers paddling around in kayaks to fish out trash, several community members rallied to turn the yacht club’s efforts into an organized nonprofit.
The newly formed nonprofit’s mission is aimed at revitalizing Bear Creek as a natural sanctuary and recreation area through education, advocacy, and community stewardship. But Bear Creek Yacht Club President Zach Wells said the organization is about much more than cleaning up the creek.
“I hope it gives us a sense of more pride,” Wells said.
Since the Bear Creek Yacht Club became official in October, it has hosted cleanups big and small almost every weekend. The community has helped out not only by lending their time and labor but by donating cash, kayaks, and boats that double as trash barges, a chainsaw, and a wench – all tools that make cleanup a little easier.
“It was just really, really neat seeing community groups get together and do all this,” Wells said. “It fills your cup.”
Wells grew up in Merced and moved back to the area a year ago with his family after about a decade away. His childhood memories of Merced include frequent walks along Bear Creek with his great-grandmother.
When he returned to the city last year, Wells said he was saddened to see how impacted by trash the creek had become. But the state of the creek made Wells ask himself, “What am I going to do about this?” he said.
As the mayor began spreading the word about more creek cleanups, Wells saw his answer and approached Serratto about making the yacht club official. Serratto was on board, and the cleanup work “hasn’t really stopped since then,” Wells said.
Serratto estimated that volunteers over the last few months have taken over 80 tons of trash away from Merced’s creeks and streets.
Other annual cleanups at Applegate Park and in the Loughborough neighborhood each turned up less trash this year compared to previous efforts, he said, meaning volunteers’ hard work is making a difference.
Even after the two-day rally for Bear Creek this weekend, ample cleanup work for future volunteer efforts will remain in abundance, Serratto said. Still, the toil is a fun way to take care of the Merced community alongside neighbors and friends, the mayor said.
Merced residents are encouraged to attend the Bear Creek cleanup this weekend and bring any available gloves, trash bags, and trucks.
“It’s good for our community. It’s so important that we protect our parks, our waterways, as sanctuaries,” Wells said. “If you come out, you’ll be feeling better. Dirtier, but better.”
