Sue Westphal’s 5 pounds of trash collected from Kiva Beach on July 5. Photo/Kathryn Reed

By Kathryn Reed

CAMP RICHARDSON – On a normal weekend it takes crews 60 to 90 minutes to clean up the trash at the U.S. Forest Service beaches on the California side of the South Shore. After a holiday weekend like today they need twice as long.

By 9am July 5, Paul Cleveland and Matt Diamond had emptied their cart three times. These bear box containers are emptied every day, so this was just one day’s worth of garbage.

When asked if he’s found any weird items, Cleveland told Lake Tahoe News, “You don’t want to know about them.”

They don’t grip the plastic bags from the bear boxes from the bottom in case there are needles.

This is year eight that Cleveland has been a summer volunteer with the Forest Service. In the last few years he’s noticed people are beginning to leave less trash at the beach.

Paul Cleveland and Matt Diamond empty the trash from the bear boxes on July 5 at Kiva. Photo/Kathryn Reed

A lot of this has to do with a lawsuit filed in 2013 by a Marla Bay couple who were tired of the fireworks debris that kept floating on their property. The following year groups like the League to Save Lake Tahoe started organized beach cleanups. This has clearly helped get the beaches clean.

Meyers resident Kenny Curtzwiler was ahead of the curve. He started rallying his staff to 2000 to clean the majority of El Dorado Beach, along with Regan Beach and the walkways surrounding Highway 50 in South Lake Tahoe.

Now there is also a greater effort to get people to clean up after themselves. The Take Care campaign that was launched in 2015 through the Tahoe Fund is one effort.

Sue Westphal of San Jose was one of the League’s volunteers at Kiva Beach on Tuesday. She picked up a trash bag of trash. Apparently the next step is to convince people to actually take their garbage with them.

Hikers and backpackers are familiar with the motto: Pack it In, Pack it Out. Beachgoers, not so much.

Gina Hunt with the League weighs the trash Greg Psilopholos collected. Photo/Kathryn Reed

The League’s 330 volunteers collected nearly 1,600 pounds of trash on July 5 from nine beaches in the basin. They were scouring 4.5 miles of shoreline at Kiva Beach, Tallac Historic Site, Regan Beach, El Dorado Beach, Timber Cove, Nevada Beach, Zephyr Shoals, Kings Beach, and Commons Beach on the North Shore.

In that cache were 7,738 cigarette butts. Single use plastics such as straws, plastic bottle caps and bottles also turned up in high numbers.

“There was plenty to pick up (at Nevada Beach), but it’s not the worst I’ve seen it,” Chris Carney of the League told Lake Tahoe News.

That’s the beach Greg and Patty Psilopholos of South Lake Tahoe worked at last year. This July 5 they hauled in 20 pounds at Kiva. Nearly a case of empty Coors cans, clothing, a towel, snorkel, mask and other items were retrieved.

Alexa Burke of South Lake Tahoe brought out 2½-year-old Connor to Kiva for the clean up.

“It’s a good activity with the little one,” Burke told Lake Tahoe News. “You play at the beach and it’s like a scavenger hunt.”

Mostly what they were finding were cigarette butts.

Alexa and Connor Burke are in search of trash at Kiva. Photo/Kathryn Reed

Paul Klempner of South Lake Tahoe was with his 10-year-old granddaughter, Sophia Arias of Sparks, at Kiva.

“The best part for me was to clean up trash that people didn’t cleanup after themselves. And to keep Tahoe clean,” Sophia told Lake Tahoe News.

The heaviest item in her 2 pounds of litter was a Jack Daniel’s bottle.

Lots of bags of dog poop were also found at Kiva; apparently people didn’t realize just bagging isn’t enough.