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Local Programs

From testing our coastal waters to ensuring that runoff stays in your garden to reducing plastic pollution, San Francisco Surfrider's programs help ensure that our marine ecosystems are protected for all. 

Blue Water Task Force (BWTF)

The Blue Water Task Force is Surfrider’s volunteer water quality monitoring program that provides critical water quality information to protect public health at the beach. Surfrider chapters use this program to raise awareness of local pollution problems and to bring together communities to implement solutions.

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Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG)

Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) program offers simple and beautiful nature-based solutions to protect clean water and support resilient coasts and communities. OFGs restore the natural functions of healthy watersheds by contouring landscapes for rainwater retention, directing water back into the ground instead of storm drains. The extensive root systems of native plants help naturally filter pollutants and sponge up extra water while restoring biodiversity to our urban landscapes.

By returning nature to our urban spaces, OFGs support climate resiliency goals by sequestering carbon, reducing air and water pollution, and avoiding climate emissions from energy-intensive maintenance practices. OFGs provide an opportunity to build equitable access to nature within neighborhoods and communities that lack green space while empowering volunteers with the skills to grow a more resilient future. 

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Beach Clean Ups (BCU)

We are stewards of our local beaches & breaks — there are many ways to help our local beaches and breaks. Come to one of our scheduled cleanups, schedule a private cleanup, or clean up on your own.

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Hold On To Your Butts (HOTYB)

Cigarette butts are plastic! Show your love for SF! If you smoke — find and use a buttcan and we’ll recycle all your butts.

Marine Protected Areas (MPA)

Marine Protected Areas help marine ecosystems withstand the impacts of pollution, development, over fishing and climate change. 

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Message In A Bottle (MIAB)

Art and education projects — a series of community based art installations, live music, performances, and education projects that encourage collaboration between local artists, Bay Area students, environmental non-profits, and government agencies to raise awareness about ocean plastic pollution and inspire change.

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Ocean Friendly Restaurants (OFR)

From table to trash — By reducing disposable waste, restaurants have the power to greatly reduce their impact on San Francisco’s ocean and beaches.

The OFR program offers restaurants an easy way to show their commitment by making sustainable choices for our ocean.

Restore Sloat

Managed retreat & beach restoration —South of Sloat Boulevard, the Ocean Beach shoreline is littered with concrete debris and boulders. Due to long-term erosion, The ecosystem and even the surf break itself has been compromised.

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Rise Above Plastics (RAP)

Rise Above Plastics is designed to eliminate the impacts of plastics in the marine environment by raising awareness about the dangers of plastic pollution and by advocating for a reduction of single-use plastics and the recycling of all plastics.

Shotgun Wad Watcher

What’s with all the wads? Plastic shotgun wads show up in great numbers along waterways and shorelines throughout the world. Projected from shotgun barrels – the plastic wads are shot into marshes or over water where they are difficult to retrieve.

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