Natural Restorations hosted a Day After Easter Lower Salt River Cleanup Event at Phon D Sutton Recreation Area on Monday, April 2nd, 2018. Check out the entire restoration HERE.
03/30/18 East Water User's Cleanup Along the Lower Salt River
We teamed Delta Sigma Pi from ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business to bring a small group of volunteers out to the Lower Salt River for a cleanup at Water Users Recreation Area on Friday, March 30th, 2018. Check out the entire restoration HERE.
Natural Restorations Recognized by U.S. Forest Service
Saturday, March 10th, while we were removing graffiti at the Beardsley Boulder Pile for the Trim Beardsley 2018 Event, we missed the U.S. Forest Service Tonto National Forest Volunteer Appreciation Potluck.⠀
We received a U.S. Forest Service National Citizen Stewardship & Partnership Award for being a valuable member of the award-winning Tonto National Forest South Zone Volunteer Program.
Thank you to the Mesa Ranger District for presenting us with a Bronze Challenge Coin for achieving a bronze level length of service by completing over 5,000 hours for the Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District.⠀
We would like to thank everyone at the U.S. Forest Service Tonto National Forest for their continued support of our program. It is a pleasure to work with all of you! Thank you to our Dedicated Restoration Team and all of the volunteers who come out to our events and make a significant impact! Thank you for the awards, bronze challenge coin, the Partner in Service patch, and water bottles!⠀
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Increase Your Impact, Reduce Your Use of Plastics
***Not a sponsored ad. We personally purchased these products and wanted to share our opinion and how we use them in our everyday lives to reduce our use of plastics.***
We are on a mission to reduce the amount of plastics we use for Natural Restorations and in our personal lives. We started by taking coolers full of water to our volunteer events and asking volunteers to bring reusable water bottles and hydration backpacks to cut down on the number of single-use plastics used at our events.
In January, we made a personal commitment to do more to reduce the amount of plastic we use. We quickly became overwhelmed with how many changes we needed to make or products we needed to give up if we wanted to made a real change. We decided rather than do nothing because we are trying to do everything, we would pick 3 ways we could immediately make a chance and then continue making a few changes each month.
The first 3 we picked were plastic produce bags, plastic toothbrushes, and razors/razor blades. The items listed below are the products we purchased using our Amazon Smile account so that 0.5% of the purchase will be donated back to Natural Restorations.
Bamboo Tooth Brushes ($11.99) - click HERE to view on Amazon.
Twist Open Shaver ($13.95) - click HERE to view on Amazon.
Viking Blade 50 Count Platinum Coated Super Blades ($14.97) - click HERE to view on Amazon.
Earthwise Reusable Mesh Produce Bags - Set of 9 ($11.97) - Click HERE to view on Amazon.
Support Natural Restorations when you shop for everyday purchases on Amazon! You can support Natural Restorations each time you make a purchase on Amazon through smile.amazon.com, and it is at no cost to you!
Click this link: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/81-4745055
Remember, always start at smile.amazon.com
and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Natural Restorations. Thank you for your support!
We Reached Our Goal!
WE DID IT! Thank you to everyone who donated to the Beardsley Boulders Graffiti Removal Fundraiser! We are grateful for your generosity and support! We cannot wait to start the graffiti removal this Saturday during the Trim Beardsley 2018 Cleanup Project.
Huge thanks to Scott McDaniel from REI for working so hard to help raise funds and promote the event! It has been amazing to see so much support from the climbing community.
Stay tuned for updates as the project progresses and we restore the Beardsley Boulder Pile to it's natural beauty!
Beardsley Boulder Graffiti Removal Fundraiser
Help us raise $2,500 to purchase the supplies needed to restore the Beardsley Boulders to their natural beauty by removing the graffiti and coverup paint. Any and every donation helps!
Due to the sheer volume of coverup paint found on countless boulders in the Pencil Thin/Monkey Lust area, and the time/material-consuming meticulousness which removing it demands, the scope of graffiti removal quickly grew much bigger than our initial expectations. That's why we're reaching out to the community, and asking for your help in raising the funds necessary to promote a lasting impact on the Beardsley Boulder Pile.
Click HERE to learn more about the project and donate. Thank you for your support!
Increase Your Impact, Reduce Your Use of Plastics
***Not a sponsored ad. We personally purchased these products and wanted to share our opinion and how we use them in our everyday lives to reduce our use of plastics.***
We are on a mission to reduce the amount of plastics we use for Natural Restorations and in our personal lives. We started by taking coolers full of water to our volunteer events and asking volunteers to bring reusable water bottles and hydration backpacks to cut down on the number of single-use plastics used at our events.
In January, we made a personal commitment to do more to reduce the amount of plastic we use. We quickly became overwhelmed with how many changes we needed to make or products we needed to give up if we wanted to made a real change. We decided rather than do nothing because we are trying to do everything, we would pick 3 ways we could immediately make a chance and then continue making a few changes each month.
The first 3 we picked were plastic produce bags, plastic toothbrushes, and razors/razor blades. The items listed below are the products we purchased using our Amazon Smile account so that 0.5% of the purchase will be donated back to Natural Restorations.
Bamboo Tooth Brushes ($11.99) - click HERE to view on Amazon.
Twist Open Shaver ($13.95) - click HERE to view on Amazon.
Viking Blade 50 Count Platinum Coated Super Blades ($14.97) - click HERE to view on Amazon.
Earthwise Reusable Mesh Produce Bags - Set of 9 ($11.97) - Click HERE to view on Amazon.
Support Natural Restorations when you shop for everyday purchases on Amazon! You can support Natural Restorations each time you make a purchase on Amazon through smile.amazon.com, and it is at no cost to you!
Click this link: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/81-4745055
Remember, always start at smile.amazon.com
and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to Natural Restorations. Thank you for your support!
02/17/18 Lower Salt River Cleanup Video
Check out this amazing video made by Milo LeBaron from LeBaron & Carroll Insurance, one of our proud sponsors. This video is from our 02/17/18 Lower Salt River Land & Water Cleanup Event.
Stay tuned, we are putting a webpage together with all of the pictures and videos from the event.
Join us at our next Salt River Cleanup on Monday, April 2nd form 8AM to 12PM at Phon D Sutton Recreation Area. Click HERE to register and we will send you all of the details.
Trail Cleanup on the Tonto National Forest
We hosted a small cleanup on February 10th, 2018 on the Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District. Not all of our cleanup events require large groups of volunteers, this was one of them. We teamed up with our friend, Mica Harkins, to bring a small group of volunteers out to a site along Bush Highway between Butcher Jones and the Bee-Line to remove 1,045 pounds of trash and six tires.
Click HERE to see all of the pictures and to watch a video we put together.
Click HERE to join us at our next event.
Santa Cruz River Cleanup in Tucson
We hosted hosted our first Tucson cleanup along the Santa Cruz River from Camino Del Cerro to Sunset Road, on Saturday, February 3, 2018.
120 volunteers, including 69 youth volunteers, helped us make a significant impact on the Santa Cruz River yesterday!
Volunteers helped us remove 78 tires, 2 shopping carts, and we filled a 40 yard dumpster full of trash. We will have the dumpster weight in early March and will update this page.
Check out all of the pictures HERE.
Join us at an upcoming event, click HERE.
Natural Restorations Receives Donation From Local Organizations
Left to right: CopperPoint President & CEO Marc Schmittlein; Milo LeBaron III, Principal; Natural Restorations Director of Field Operations ; and Natural Restorations Executive Director Nicole Corey.
We would like to thank everyone at CopperPoint Insurance Companies and LeBaron & Carroll LLC for presenting Natural Restorations with a $5,000 donation. We are excited to grow our relationship with both of these organizations and continue to provide volunteer opportunities for their employees and families. We are honored to have our program recognized by these two wonderful organizations.
Giving back is an integral part of CopperPoint Insurance Companies and its workforce. CopperPoint believes corporate responsibility requires active engagement in the communities they serve through sponsorship, economic development and employee involvement. CopperPoint's focused philanthropy is an investment in Arizona and its future.
LeBaron & Carroll LLC is making a difference in the community, in the workplace, and in people's lives. We are grateful to Milo and his team for their commitment to partnering with organizations that provide meaningful and beneficial programs to their customers and the community. Thank you for your continued support!
18.12 Tons Removed!
Check out all of the pictures and learn more about our 01/20/18 Cleanup with Footprints Matter to Us by clicking HERE. 235 volunteers spent their morning with us removing trash from Tonto National Forest Land and Arizona State Trust Land.
Join us at an upcoming event, click HERE to view our Events Calendar.
OdySea Aquarium's Conservation Expo
Stop by and see us at OdySea Aquarium's Conservation Expo on Saturday, January 13th from 9 am – 3 pm. FREE family-friendly festival focused on the conservation initiatives of over 30 organizations, including Natural Restorations.
Meet multiple animal ambassadors up close, learn through exciting presentations by conservation experts, engage in interactive, hands-on activities, and pick up some healthy organic produce from the farmers market presented by Singh Farms.
Free entry. Free parking. Open to all ages.
OdySea in the Desert (outside in the courtyard): 9500 E. Via De Ventura, Scottsdale, AZ 85256
Eventbrite page: https://conservationexpo2018.eventbrite.com
Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1670093313012008/
135.5 Tons of Trash Removed in 2017
Happy New Year! We're excited for 2018 and the opportunity to reach the goals we set for the new year. We are proud of what we accomplished in 2017. We removed 135.5 tons of trash from Arizona's outdoor recreation and wilderness areas in 2017, that's 271,000 pounds of trash no longer littering our beautiful state.
In 2017, we launched our Dedicated Restoration Team and greatly increased our impact. Our team removed 138,740 pounds of trash and several panels of graffiti painted on rock faces through an Off-Highway Vehicle grant administered by the Arizona State Parks and Trails Board. Read more about that project HERE. Volunteers also helped us removed another 132,260 pounds of trash across 10 different cleanup events! Thank you to everyone who joined us in 2017 and helped us keep natural areas clean and open to the public to enjoy!⠀⠀
In less than 3 years, we've removed 204.8 tons of trash from Arizona, that's 409,600 pounds of trash removed and we've only just begun!
Join us for an upcoming cleanup, click HERE to visit our Events Calendar.
6260 Pounds of Trash Removed From Mesquite Wash
Our Dedicated Restoration Team removed 6,260 pounds of trash from Mesquite Wash OHV Area, including lots of scattered trash near the entrances to both sides of Mesquite Wash, OHV & 4X4 parts, nails from pallet fires burned on roads and trails, target shooting trash, clothing, camping trash, broken glass, plastic bags & wrappers, broken shade canopies, illegally dumped landscape waste, plastic & glass bottles, aluminum cans, and much more. We also removed graffiti from several areas, including rocks painted for shooting targets. Check out all of the pictures HERE.
4795 Pounds of Trash Removed From the Salt River
All of the pictures from our 1st Annual Green Friday Cleanup along the Lower Salt River are live on our website, click HERE to check them out.
4795 pounds of trash and recyclables was removed by volunteers on Green Friday! 3440 pounds of trash removed, 1265 pounds of aluminum cans removed and recycled, and 90 pounds of rigid plastics removed and recycled from Granite Reef, Phon D Sutton, Coon Bluff, and Water Users Recreation Sites along the Lower Salt River. Huge thanks to all of the volunteers have came out the morning after Thanksgiving to #OptOutside with us and make a huge impact on the Salt River!
We would also like to thank the following organizations for their support of this event: American Rivers, Arizona Trail Association, Body Mechanicx Sports Therapy, DPR Construction, Friends of the Tonto National Forest, HuppyBar, The Home Depot off US-60 & Crismon, ICON Vehicle Dynamics, Insane Audio, Mountain Chicks, Parks Project, REI and the REI Goodyear Distribution Center, Safeway, Southwest Airlines at Phoenix, Salt River Project, TerraCycle, Tom Corey Images, Tom Story, U.S. Forest Service - Tonto National Forest - Mesa Ranger District, and Walmart Apache Junction.
Check out our events calendar for upcoming cleanups, click HERE.
Exciting News for Natural Restorations
We want to share some exciting news with all of you! We recently received our 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation from the IRS and we will be moving away from our fiscal sponsorship with the Arizona Trail Association the beginning of next week. We are excited for all of the new opportunities to grow the organization and add new youth education components to our existing program.
To read an article about our accomplishments over the last 32 months in the Autumn 2017 Arizona Trail Association Newsletter, click HERE and then click the link for Natural Restorations Benefits People & Places Throughout Arizona.
We would like to thank everyone at the Arizona Trail Association for their support and sponsorship, we would not have accomplished as much as we did in the first 32 months without them. This isn't the end of our relationship with the Arizona Trail Association! We love the trail and everyone involved with maintaining, promoting, and protecting the AZT, and we will continue to host cleanups on or along the AZT anytime there is a need.
Natural Restorations Partners with Outdoor Adventure Quest
It's getting close to the end of the year and I'm sure every charity is hitting you up for donations for tax credits. While we do need your financial support, we have a super fun and new way for you to help Natural Restorations! We've partnered with Outdoor Adventure Quest to give our supporters an amazing outdoor experience enjoying all the public lands we work so hard to preserve. Go on their 3-day BUILD-YOUR-OWN Adventure Challenge and they'll donate 20% of ticket proceeds back to us! If you want to go the extra mile, make a team pact to collect as much trash as possible during your Quest!
Here's a quick overview of what Outdoor Adventure Quest is: Grab your friends or family and make a team of 2-6 people and get ready for adventures that'll take you across Arizona. Together you'll plan out your 3-day road trip to accomplish as many challenge tasks as you can. There are 500+ challenge tasks organized into 10 different categories: HIKE, MTB/BIKE, CAMP, CLIMB, OUTDOOR EDUCATION, OFF ROADING, PADDLING, EXTREME SPORTS, ALTERNATIVE OUTDOORSMAN & everyone's favorite....DRINKABLES (breweries, wineries & distilleries). Your team can start and end anywhere in AZ and you'll compete against teams all over the state; each team chooses their own activities. It's a great way to see the beautiful state we live in, do some trail clean up, and create some hilarious memories with your team.
And did we mention all Questers receive a FREE AZ State Park Day Pass to go to any parks in AZ on their Quest!
Make sure you click HERE to register and ensure 20% of your ticket proceeds are donated to Natural Restorations.
Have You Registered for Green Friday?
Click HERE to Register for our 1st Annual Green Friday Salt River Cleanup.
National Public Lands Day Cleanup with Mountain Chicks
September 30th, 2017 was National Public Lands Day. We celebrated by teaming up with Mountain Chicks for a cleanup along Bruce Brocket Trail, Bell Trail, and the "Crack" at Bell Trail, Southeast of Sedona. Click here to check out all of the amazing pictures and watch the video below.