The Coastodian

Richard James is the human embodiment of the motto “think globally, act locally.” Since 2008, he’s been quietly and painstakingly packing out trash of his backyard, the Tomales Bay area. In three years Richard removed over three tons of trash: plastic and styrofoam bits of all sizes, broken fishing gear, and plastic bottles from every corner of the earth. “But It’s not enough to pick up the trash. That’s just the symptom of a larger problem. If you don’t like the water on the floor, go fix the leaky faucet.” In 2011 Richard set out to plug the leaky faucets. He began by helping change the habits of the local oyster farms by encouraging them replace and improve upon antiquated, faulty and polluting equipment. Next he raised public awareness around the ills of one-time use plastic bottles. Today his latest efforts are aimed at reminding state and local regulation services of their civic duties to protect our public lands. “If you don’t look, you don’t see,” Richard says. Our backyards are a great place to start looking - the future of our collective backyard depends on it. To learn more, check out Richard’s blog, coastodian.org. Photo by Richard James. For his morning kayak paddle, Richard is wearing the Flannagan Long Sleeve Shirt paired with the Rover Pant. When collecting trash along the waterfront, Richard is wearing the Watchdog Long Sleeve Shirt and Alex is wearing the Kennicott Shirt Jac. Both are wearing Rover Pants.