Spring cleaning season is here! Time to renew and refresh what you know about Clean Your Streams 365, our year-long watershed clean-up program, and discover some upcoming clean-up opportunities.

Clean Your Streams 365 is a year-round effort for clearer, cleaner waterways. Volunteers choose their own time and location to remove marine debris. These clean-ups can be PCS staff or Board member-led, or clean-on-your-own. In either case, PCS will provide all clean-up supplies, including gloves, trash bags, grabbers, and data cards to record the marine debris you remove. Once you complete the online interest form, PCS will make all necessary arrangements.

We’re hosting a public Clean Your Streams 365 program in April, in partnership with the Great Lakes CleanUP. On Saturday April 30 from 1pm-3pm, volunteers will meet at Cullen Park (4526 N Summit St, Toledo, OH 43611) to remove marine debris from the mouth of the Maumee River peninsula walking trail. Let us know you're coming!

Remember that in lieu of data cards, when you clean on your own you have the option to record the marine debris you remove using the Clean Swell app. Clean Swell lets you track the marine debris on your smart phone with a simple tap of a tile. The app records the amount of trash you have removed, estimates pounds of trash, and tracks your total distance cleaned. So you really can Clean Your Streams 365 days of the year!

If recycling is your spring cleaning focus, volunteer shifts are now open to help with the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon’s Green Team. Register using the Glass City Marathon’s volunteer portal site, and scroll down to find Green Team shifts on April 22-24.

Although every day is Earth Day to us, this April is packed full of Earth Day events, volunteer opportunities, and educational talks. We’re here to give you the run-down of all the ways you can connect with us and learn more about local water this month.

You can always check our calendar for the latest information, but here are some highlights to look forward to.

April 9, 10am-3pm
Visit: EcoFest Toledo - Handmade Toledo
Join the Toledo-Lucas County Sustainability Commission as they celebrate all things green at EcoFest Toledo at Handmade Toledo. Find our table to say hello, and take home educational resources on how to prevent marine debris and keep our waterways clear!

April 11, 10am-3pm
Learn: Great Lakes Watershed Clean-up Talk - Wood County District Public Library
Have you ever wondered how environmental harm and improvement are measured? Curious to learn what we do in addition to our awesome watershed clean-ups? On April 11 from 7-8pm, Partners for Clean Streams’ program coordinator Liv Simkins Bullock will be in-person at the Wood County District Public Library to answer these questions and more! Learn more and register here: https://wcdpl.libcal.com/event/8857203

April 22-24
Volunteer: Recycle and divert trash from the Ottawa River with the “Green Team”
Mercy Health Glass City Marathon on the University of Toledo Campus
Volunteer sign-ups are now open for the “Green Team” for the Mercy Health Glass City Marathon weekend! Sign up through the Marathon’s volunteer website. Scroll down or search for “Green Team” to find volunteer shifts. 

April 23, 10am-3pm
Visit: Party for the Planet – Toledo Zoo
Join the Toledo Zoo in celebrating Mother Earth and exemplifying their mission of being advocates for wildlife and conserving the natural world. You also have a chance to drop off your recyclable goods – including hard-to-recycle item. Find our table to say hello, and take home educational resources on how to prevent marine debris and keep our waterways clear!

April 30, 1pm-3pm
Volunteer: Clean Your Streams 365 Public Clean-Up - Cullen Park in Toledo, Ohio
PCS is partnering with the Great Lakes CleanUP, a regional effort to remove marine debris from the Great Lakes, to tackle this peninsula on the border of the Maumee River and Maumee Bay. Since it sits at the mouth of the river, this site collects a lot of single use plastic debris from further upstream, and it could use our help! Regsiter here.

The Greater Toledo Community Foundation recently awarded us a $51,452 grant to kick off a new collaborative program called Community Water Action in Toledo (CWAT). Learn how this effort will coordinate and strengthen volunteer water monitoring programs around the region.

The Greater Toledo Community Foundation recently awarded a $51,452 grant to Partners for Clean Streams to kick off a new collaborative program called Community Water Action in Toledo (CWAT). These funds will be used to coordinate a multi-agency program that will streamline volunteer involvement in monitoring water quality in the western basin of Lake Erie.

This grant allows Partners for Clean Streams to connect partner organizations’ volunteer water monitoring programs by sharing training resources, engaging in volunteer outreach, aligning sampling protocols and methods, and evaluating program success. Foundation funds will enable Partners for Clean Streams to hire an intern to oversee these efforts and to promote volunteer opportunities for citizens that want to get involved. Cleveland Water Alliance will be providing local partners with additional sampling equipment.

The participating organizations in Community Water Action in Toledo include Metroparks Toledo, TMACOG, Toledo Zoo, Toledo Rotary, and the Cleveland Water Alliance. Community Water Action in Toledo is the local hub for a Lake Erie region-wide effort of the Lake Erie Volunteer Science Network, led by Cleveland Water Alliance.

Greater Toledo Community Foundation is a public charitable organization. Since 1973, the Foundation has more than 900 individual current funds with assets of approximately $412 million. The Foundation provides philanthropic services for individuals, families, businesses and corporations to meet their charitable giving needs. PCS is grateful for their continued support.