On the first Saturday of September, the long Alaskan summer is quietly slipping away. The tourists have left the Homer Spit, the days are shortening, and the ebb tide is pulling off Kachemak Bay's vast mudflats to reveal a world of tide pools, sand dollars, and driftwood. It is precisely then, with the season turning, that the people of Homer gather at the Bishop's Beach Pavilion to give the shoreline a last, loving scrub. On September 5, 2026, at ten in the morning, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies will throw open that pavilion for the annual CoastWalk Kickoff, inviting anyone who cares about the bay to clean the beach, adopt a stretch of shoreline of their own, grab a bite of food, and play a few games while they're at it.
The kickoff is the ceremonial opening bell for an effort that has run, unbroken, for more than four decades. Since 1984 the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies has coordinated the Kachemak Bay CoastWalk, an annual program in which volunteers choose a designated "zone" of the bay's shoreline, walk it in the weeks that follow, and turn their rambles into science. Participants collect observational data on marine life, birds, and animals; they note signs of human use and impact; they record any noticeable changes to their stretch of beach. And, crucially, they haul away the debris the tides have left behind. It is stewardship with a clipboard, a cleanup that doubles as long-term environmental monitoring, and it has resulted in the removal and disposal of tons of trash from the beaches of the lower Cook Inlet over the years.
The whole enterprise grew out of something humbler than an organized program. According to the Center, CoastWalk was born of local citizens' concern about what they were witnessing along their shorelines. Alaska's beaches are among the most dynamic on Earth. They are also magnets for recreation, residence, commerce, and industry, and the CoastWalk founders wanted a way to keep track of what all that activity was doing to the coast, and to keep it healthy for every creature that calls it home. What began as a grassroots worry became a standing civic commitment, a Homer tradition in the fullest sense.
In practice, the CoastWalk runs through September and into early October, a month of coordinated outings across the bay. The kickoff at Bishop's Beach is where it all starts, and where volunteers learn how to take part. Some sign up for the organized community cleanups scheduled throughout the season; others "adopt a zone," committing to care for and document a particular stretch of shoreline. Either way, the program's careful methodology means that every pickup bag comes with paperwork: volunteers complete the CoastWalk Data Sheet, the Biodiversity Survey, the Alaska-Specific Marine Debris Form, and the Ocean Marine Debris Form. At the end of the season the Center's team gathers those forms, crunches the numbers, and produces annual reports that help track marine debris movement across Alaska.
The numbers tell the story of the program's scale. In 2025 alone, CoastWalk volunteers removed more than 3,400 pounds of debris from Kachemak Bay beaches across twenty-two cleanups, with 531 people lending a hand. The 2026 season is shaping up to follow that pattern, with a string of outings spread across the month. On September 12, volunteers head to the intertidal behind Pier 1, one of the few spots in the bay where sand dollars can be found a short walk from dry land, for a morning of tide pooling followed by a cleanup. On September 19, a crew tackles the rarely accessed seven-mile stretch between Diamond Creek and Bishop's Beach. September 26 brings the expedition to Glacier Spit, the season's signature event, which perches in front of Grewingk Glacier and catches debris swirling around the bay on the currents; it is typically the largest cleanup by weight each year, requires advance sign-up, and relies on donated water-taxi transportation. The season closes in early October with a sweep from Mud Bay to Miller's Landing.
But the September 5 kickoff is deliberately lighter than the heavy lifting that follows, a celebration meant to make stewardship feel like a party. The 2024 edition, held at the same Bishop's Beach Pavilion from eleven to three, offers a preview of the atmosphere: a kickoff cookout, marine debris crafts where visitors could paint a buoy, and a lineup of "marine debris lawn games" including Buoy Bocce, ring toss, and kubb, alongside an on-the-spot Bishop's Beach cleanup. The description of that year's event, free and open to all, urged people to bring "friends, family, neighbors, and loose acquaintances," and to celebrate the end of summer by giving the beaches some love. That spirit carries into 2026, with the CoastWalk Kickoff offering food, games, and the chance to adopt a zone.
The organization behind it all has deep roots on the Kenai Peninsula, coordinating the CoastWalk from its headquarters on Smoky Bay Way in Homer, where the kickoff was traditionally held to coordinate the month's work. In recent seasons that gathering has moved to the pavilion at Bishop's Beach, where the business of organizing cleanups and the pleasures of a shore-side party meet.
Bishop's Beach itself is an apt venue for a public-spirited coastal tradition. It is a community gathering place, home to the Bishop's Beach Pavilion, and it has long been one of the most beloved bits of coastline in the Kachemak Bay region.
The deeper message of the kickoff is woven into every buoy-painting and kubb game: the bay's health is not a spectator sport. Marine debris, the Center notes, is overwhelmingly plastic, and it arrives from land-based uses, marine industries and recreation, container-ship spills, and natural disasters. In the ocean, plastic photodegrades into ever-smaller fragments that marine mammals, fish, seabirds, and sea turtles mistake for food, causing starvation, choking, and death, while nets and line loop around seals and whales. But the cure, the CoastWalk insists, begins close to home. Individuals can make a real difference simply by showing up on a Saturday morning, picking up what the tide delivered, and writing down what they find.
So on September 5, 2026, the people of Homer will gather once again at Bishop's Beach, volunteers old and new, families and their "loose acquaintances," to clean a beach, adopt a zone, enjoy some food, and play a few games. It is a small act, repeated faithfully for more than forty years, and it is how a community keeps a promise to the most dynamic shoreline in Alaska. For more information on the kickoff or to sign up for CoastWalk cleanups, the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies can be reached by phone at (907) 235-6667 or by email at [email protected].