Laguna’s coast cleaned

Volunteers bagged more than 2,800 pounds of trash at the annual California Coastal Cleanup Day.

About 800 volunteers scoured Laguna’s beaches from Treasure Island to Divers Cove and Heisler Park, despite fears that recent publicity about city homeless issues kept some people away.

“I had the most interest for the Coastal Cleanup Day this week in the past several years before the story on the stabbing at Heisler Park,” said Roger von Bütow, founder of Clean Water Now! and Laguna’s Cleanup Day beach manager. “But I was swamped with last-minute e-mails and voice mails, especially from parents with kids, scout troops and youth groups who planned on coming from out of town for CCD, so I don’t know how many didn’t show up.”

Von Bütow said contacts from anxious out-of-town volunteers erupted after CNN aired a story on the recent stabbing at Heisler Park. The stabbing, involving homeless men, was not fatal.

However, those who showed up did a dandy job, von Bütow said.

Volunteers in Laguna dumped 1,600 pounds of trash and 1,200 pounds into receptacles provided by Waste Management of Orange County, the city’s contracted hauler.

“Underwater divers at Treasure Island pulled up a boom and winch that I assume was for lobsters and separately a metal lobster crate,” von Bütow said.

A 4-foot-long piece of rebar was found at Main Beach, and four girls sent by von Bütow to the end of Heisler Park came back with an intact lobster trap they found on the beach below the park.

“We were going to dump it in the trash, but Michelle Clarke from Waste Management told us to put with the recyclables,” von Bütow said.

While cheered by the results of the beach clean-up, von Bütow expressed concern about the adverse effect the city’s homeless population had on the volunteers.

“There were some bad vibes from the street people — a term I like better than homeless,” von Bütow said.

“Like the man said about pornography, I can’t define bad vibes, but I recognize it when I see it.

“And it has affected the whole town, maybe infected us.”

Mayor Kelly Boyd and von Bütow were accosted by one man who walked up and blew smoke in their faces.

“I have never seen this type of street people here before,” von Bütow said. “Usually they don’t want to draw attention to themselves, but about 10% of them are so obnoxious, it is mind-bending. “

The aggression distressed some of the volunteers who arrived early, and von Bütow is concerned about how the edgy atmosphere will affect quarterly Adopt-A-Beach clean-ups.

“These visitors don’t know the difference regarding which are our safe beaches and where the homeless hang out — now they sound like they’ll go elsewhere just in case,” von Bütow said. “Adults [that are] contacting me are anxious that all of Laguna Beach is now basically downtown L.A., maybe random shootings are next. I can’t convince them that our other sites in town are still safe.”

California Coastal Cleanup Day is part of an international effort that has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s biggest 24-hour volunteer event.

For more information about Saturday’s annual event and the quarterly cleanups, visit www.cleanwaternow.com or call (949) 715-1912.