It was a vibrant scene Saturday at Ontario Beach Park, with younger children splashing in the water and older kids playing volleyball in the sand.

The Alliance for the Great Lakes, through its Adopt-a-Beach program, wants to make sure these activities can continue. The program launched in New York with four beach cleanup events on lakes Erie and Ontario.

Locally, more than 70 people participated in Saturday’s Adopt-a-Beach events.

The volunteer-based program, formed in 2003, monitors the health of the five Great Lakes, with Lake Ontario the last lake to be included.

“I grew up on Lake Erie and was a lifeguard there throughout high school and college,” said Nate Drag, the alliance outreach coordinator for New York state. “I remember seeing dead fish and birds wash up on shore and wondering why this was happening.”

Drag traveled from Buffalo to teach volunteers how to conduct a beach health assessment.

Not only did they pick up litter, but they also made scientific observations about pollution, water quality, wind direction, air temperature and wildlife sightings.

Their data will be posted to a national online database and shared with beach authorities.

The Great Lakes are an amazing natural resource, Drag said, and educating the public to take care of the lakes can help preserve them.

“We’re learning through our New York outreach that, as is true in other Great Lakes communities, these beaches and coastal waters are priceless treasures to the people who live, work and recreate nearby,” said Jamie Cross, who is the project manager of the Adopt-a-Beach program.

Nearly 11,000 people in seven of the eight Great Lakes states volunteer with the Adopt-a-Beach program. In addition to the one-day cleanup events that tend to occur in the summer, Drag said, the Alliance for the Great Lakes would like to collect data about the beaches year-round. Local volunteers are invited to become team leaders and form groups to continue monitoring nearby beaches and lakes.

“My hope is that, through hands-on participation with Adopt-a-Beach, a stewardship ethic can be nurtured here on lakes Erie and Ontario the way it has across all of the Great Lakes,” he said.

To look at the data collected by Adopt-a-Beach volunteers, go to greatlakesadopt.org.
Volunteers clean local beach as part of national effort | Democrat and Chronicle | democratandchronicle.com.