{"id":509554,"date":"2026-10-27T14:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/509554\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T14:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:26:42","slug":"santa-maria-creek-cleanup-nets-more-than-6000-pounds-of-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/509554\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Maria Creek cleanup nets more than 6,000 pounds of trash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It took a group of 14 volunteers about three hours to haul more than 6,000 pounds of trash out of the Santa Maria Creek in Ramona during a recent cleanup event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was mostly household stuff,\u201d said Kit Kesinger, who helped organize the effort. \u201cThere were some tires, some broken children\u2019s toys, a couch, a refrigerator, a mattress and a lot of burned material.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cleanup was held on Sept. 19, along with the I Love A Clean San Diego 42nd annual Coastal Cleanup Day.<\/p>\n<p>Efforts in Ramona focused on Walnut Street, east of Maple.<\/p>\n<p>The Santa Maria Creek runs from the Santa Maria Valley to the Ramona Grasslands County Preserve, and several local agencies have joined forces to complete a 2.5-mile trail, known as the Santa Maria Creek Greenway, alongside the creek.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"A large pile of garbage left in the Santa Maria Creek. The items were later disposed of. (Kit Kesinger)\" width=\"2879\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/RAS-L-Santa-Maria-2.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"10104103\" \/>A large pile of garbage left in the Santa Maria Creek. The items were later disposed of. (Kit Kesinger)<\/p>\n<p>The greenway is envisioned as a safe, designated trail through the middle of Ramona. Hikers, bikers, equestrians, dog walkers, wheelchair users and more will be able to use the completed trail.<\/p>\n<p>The greenway will connect Ramona Community Park, the town center, the business area, the Ramona Intergenerational Community Campus, the grasslands and Old Survey Road 94. Ultimately, the greenway will connect with the San Dieguito River Park, allowing users to reach San Pasqual Valley, and connect to the Coast to Crest Trail<\/p>\n<p>The volunteers included youngsters, teenagers, their parents and some older adults.<\/p>\n<p>Kesinger said he considered the cleanup day a success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny time we can get trash out of the community, I think it\u2019s pretty successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Waste from palm trees appeared to have been added to over time; the debris was disposed of properly after the clean up. (Kit Kesinger)\" width=\"2879\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/RAS-L-Santa-Maria-3.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"10104104\" \/>Waste from palm trees appeared to have been added to over time; the debris was disposed of properly after the clean up. (Kit Kesinger)<\/p>\n<p>A dumpster, donated by Ramona Disposal, was completely filled with trash, said Cheryl Wegner of the Ramona Trails Association.<\/p>\n<p>She said piles of construction and green debris would be removed on another day.<\/p>\n<p>Wegner and Kesinger said they were also pleased that so many residents expressed an interest in the future of the proposed greenway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone worked really hard and it was nice to have so much community support,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It took a group of 14 volunteers about three hours to haul more than 6,000 pounds of trash&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[196519,74,76,75,196518],"class_list":["post-509554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-creek-cleanup-in-ramona","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-santa-maria-creek-cleanup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}