Save The Bay needs your help to document Bay Trash Hot Spots! Last year, photos submitted by residents like you helped prove that 26 local creeks and shoreline areas violate the Clean Water Act. Thanks to these actions, the waterways will have to be cleaned up. But there are many more Bay Trash Hot Spots that we don't yet know about. Help us bring attention to trashy waterways near you!

Help rescue the vital and effective San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) from the Governor's chopping block. BCDC helps protect the Bay from shoreline development and ensures public access for recreation. Governor Schwarzenegger's budget proposes elimination of BCDC as a state agency.

The California Assembly is considering legislation that would dramatically reduce plastic bag pollution. However, the plastics industry is pushing an alternative bill that would handcuff the efforts of local governments to reduce plastic bag pollution. Tell your Assemblymember to support AB 68, and help keep bags out of the Bay.

Attention San Jose residents: the San Jose City Council needs to hear from you! The Council is considering an ordinance that would require a 25 cent fee on plastic and paper single-use bags. Millions of bags end up in the Bay and creeks leading to it, threatening wildlife and choking wetlands. Tell city officials to stand up against the plastics industry and protect our precious waterways from plastic debris.

Californians use an estimated 19 billion plastic bags per year. Only five percent of these are recycled. Once upon a time, everyone brought their own grocery bags. It’s easy, but in the U.S., we’re out of practice. With a little incentive, in 2009 we can kick our bag habits together. The birds, fish and seals living in the Bay and ocean will thank us for it.

Minnesota-based agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. is threatening to fill in and build on 1,433 acres of Bayfront salt ponds in Redwood City. Tell Cargill that San Francisco Bay cannot be sacrificed for profit. Now that these former tidal wetlands are not needed for salt production, the site must be sold or transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be included in the Don Edwards SF Bay National Wildlife Refuge to provide recreation for residents and habitat for fish and wildlife.

A recent lawsuit required the US Environmental Protection Agency to notify stores that sell pesticides about the Salmon Warning signs and information available to consumers. Very few stores have taken the next step and posted the warning labels. Has your hardware store?