Cleaning the National Park of Marathon-Schinias

Sunday, October 23^rd at 10:00 am

The National Park of Marathon-Schinias is a unique ecosystem in Attica and in Greece. It is one of the few areas where a pine forest and wetlands verge onto a sandy beach and coastal dune system. The entire Park is a protected area, but one which neither the government, in the form of the National Park organisation, nor the Municipality, are able to protect.

Illegal tavernas and beach bars have expanded in the area, in clear violation of at least three major zoning laws (proximity to the waterline; the fact that this is a forest area; the fact that it is a national park). Rather than closing these establishments, the government turns a blind eye to the fact that they operate, as well as to the fact that they have gained access to private electricity provision, and operate with what amounts to an illegal restaurant licence.

The second major problem is that of unrestricted access. Schinias is a popular summer swimming destination: one estimate claims that every day, at least 10,000 people in about 3,000 cars visit the park. They leave tonnes of litter behind; their cars destroy the root system of the pine forest; some go as far as to set up grills and cook their food, which is a major fire hazard during the high-temperature, high-wind, dry summer season.

Since 2008, a group of volunteers named the “Friends of Schinias” has organised six clean-ups of the National Park. Initiated by Philip Ammerman of Navigator Consulting Group, and with the support of private sector companies, embassies, schools, NGOs and the media, we have cleaned hundreds of tonnes of litter in an effort to make the park safer and cleaner, and to remove fire and health hazards.

On Sunday, October 23^rd, we are meeting for our seventh cleanup, starting at 10:00 am.

This Sunday’s cleaning has been initiated by Elix, one of Greece’s best volunteer organisations, and the Conservation Volunteers Alliance . We will be meeting at the parking lot near the “Dolphin” restaurant, at the end of the asphalt road, at the NE corner of the park near the “Dikastes”.

Register or visit our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/SchiniasFriends

For further information, please contact:

Philip Ammerman

pga@navigator-consulting.com

tel. 6977-662-450

Fifth Schinias Clean-up

On Sunday, 10 October, a group of 32 volunteers gathered to clean the forest and beach of Schinias. Despite the overcast weather, we were able to clean over 50 garbage bags of litter from the area of the Glaros restaurant, which is one of the most heavily-visited areas of the National Park during the summer.

Although the litter remains omni-present, the impact of five cleanings are starting to be seen: the litter volume in the area is decreasing. We believe that together with more intensive cleanings over a wider area, a campaign to install litter bins and “no litter” signs will be decisive.

A special thanks goes to all the volunteers, old and new, who came out on cloudy weather this Sunday to help clean the forest and beach. A special thanks to:

·         Nadine Ioannou and the CAS Programme students of the I.M. Panayiotopoulos School, who came out at short notice amidst a busy exam season;

·         Henske and Lieke Defize, “veterans” of the cleaning who have attended every single event since our start in October 2008, for running the registration desk;

·         Alexander Ammerman, who once again helped with the thankless but vital task of logistics;

·         Sky Radio, Xpat Athens.com, Athinorama, and others for publicising the event;

·         Mr. Nikos Anastasopoulos, President of the National Park of Marathon-Schinias, and the members of the Vrilissos NGO, with whom we will organise future events.

The volunteers included the following (if I have forgotten or misspelled any names, please email me!)

Alexandris, Despina & Yiannis Papadakis

Ammerman, Philip & Alexander

Anastasopoulos, Nikos

Balland, Christophe & Gaelle

Defize, Lieke & Henske

Hondros, Dimitris

Ioannou, Nadine

Khnouf, Hilde

Minas, Viviane & Children

Mitic, Sophie & Children

Panagiotou, Ritsa & Ariadne

Prassinos, Costas

Vasileia, Katrini 

Fifth Schinias Beach Clean-up: Sunday, October 10th 2010

On Sunday, October 10th, a group of volunteers is organising our Fifth Clean-up of Schinias Beach and Forest. Our objective is to collect and bag as much garbage as possible, between the beach and the asphalt road. We will place the collected garbage in the recycling bins placed near the beach.
This last summer, record numbers of people visited Schinias. The forest and beach are littered with garbage, mostly plastic, metal and glass packaging. We will focus on cleaning as much of the forest region as possible.

The event will be held in conjunction with the Marathon Bike Festival, which will see a guided tour by bicycle from Nea Makri to Schinias, and a picnic in conjunction with the Beach Clean-up.

http://marathonbikefestival.wordpress.com/. The Vrilissos Association has offered to transport participants’ bicycles to and from Schinias: http://www.vrilisos.gr/drasis.html

The amount of ground we will cover will depend on the number of volunteers to turn out on October 10th. Please register by emailing Philip Ammerman at pga@navigator-consulting.com, so we can plan the work teams and meeting points.

Meeting Place
Meet near the “Glaros” Taverna on the beach. Take Leoforos Schinias past the Olympic Rowing Centre. After you pass a small group of houses and tavernas, take the first right-hand turn (dirt road). This leads you to the Glaros Taverna on the beach: once you arrive at the taverna, turn right and continue for about 200 m parallel to the beach, where you will see our registration desk. Please arrive between 10:00-10:30 so we can divide into groups and clean the area.

What to Bring

·         Drinking water or other beverages for your personal consumption

·         Comfortable work clothes, including work gloves

Everyone is invited to a group picnic lunch at 13:00: please join us and bring a salad, sandwiches, tiropitakia, keftedakia, dolmathes, drinks/ beverages or other food to contribute to the common lunch.

Directions:

Start at the Stavros intersection, on Leoforos Marathonas (Marathon Avenue). You reach this by:

·         Driving up Messogheion from Ambelokipous;

·         Taking the Hymettos Ring or the Attiki Odos and exiting at Exit 15: Leoforos Marathonas, or Exit 16/Y7: Leontario, direction Rafina;

·         If coming from Kifissia, driving through Meli-ssia, taking Anapafseos and Kleisthenous, which intersect Messogheion at Stavros.

Follow Marathon Avenue, driving past Pallini, Rafina, Nea Makri, and Marathon. About 30 km after Stavros, exit at the blue exit sign “Schinias” and “Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre.”

About 3 km later, turn right at the turn marked: “Schinias-Olympic Rowing Centre”, which is next to a bakery and real estate agency.

Drive by the Olympic Rowing Centre on your left. The asphalt road veers left: this is Leoforos Schinias. Drive about 2 km, passing a small hamlet of houses and tavernas. About 250 m after the last taverna, turn right after the “Glaros” taverna sign. This dirt road leads you to the beach, and 2-3 tavernas. Turn right, following the dirt road parallel to the beach about 100 m, where you will find our meeting spot.

Olympic Rowing Centre Event - Sunday, June 13th

The Friends of Schinias group would like to inform you that on Sunday June 13^th, the Olympic Rowing Centre at Schinias will be opening its doors to the public.

A special event has been planned:

12:30 -13:30

Brief guided walk through the Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre (ORCC) grounds with description on the history and the environment (flora and fauna) of the area.

The tour will be led by Ms. Sofia Sideri, volunteer of the Hellenic Ornithological Society and Mr. Christos Alivizatos of the Greek Bird Ringing Centre.

Meeting Point: In front of the control tower of the ORCC

13:30-14:30

An introductory meeting between representatives of the Management of the Park, community members and visitors. Mr. Nicholas Anastasopoulos, President and Board Members Mr. Spyros Plessas, and Ms. Stellina Koulouzaki will be there.

Meeting Point: In front of the control tower of the ORCC

We look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks to all the volunteers

Αγαπητέ Φίλιππε:

με αυτό το μήνυμα θα ήθελα να απευθύνω ευχαριστίες τόσο σε εσένα προσωπικά όσο και σε όλους τους "Φίλους του Σχινιά" για την βοήθειά σας στην επιτυχημένη διοργάνωση της 25ης Απριλίου και για το ότι έχετε συστηματικά υπάρξει οι καλύτεροι σύμμαχοι στο Εθνικό Πάρκο Σχινιά Μαραθώνα!

Παρακαλώ να διανείμεις τις ευχαριστίες εκ μέρους του ΔΣ του Εθνικού Πάρκου Σχινιά Μαραθώνα σε όλα τα μέλη της συλλογικότητας των "Φίλων του Σχινιά", μερικά των οποίων -συμπεριλαμβανομένου και του αδερφού σου- είχα την χαρά να γνωρίσω κατά τη διάρκεια της ημέρας.

Προσβλέπω σε περισσότερες ευκαιρίες για την διαμόρφωση από κοινού ενός αισιόδοξου μέλλοντος για το Πάρκο και για την διαμόρφωση μίας δυνατής περιβαλλοντικής συνείδησης και προστασίας σε αυτό το τόσο πολυποίκιλο και μοναδικό οικοσύστημα!

Με ευγνωμοσύνη και χαιρετισμούς,

ΝΙΚΟΣ ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ

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Dear Philip:

with this message I would like to thank you personally and the Friends of Schinias for all your help in making the event of the 25^th of April a success and for being consistently the best allies that the Schinias National Park has!

Please feel free to pass my thanks on behalf of the Management Board of the National Park of Schinias to all members of the "Friends of Schinias" Collective, some of whom -including your brother- I met during the clean-up day!

I look forward to more occasions for shaping together a positive future for the Park and for building a strong environmental awareness and protection in this varied and unique ecosystem!

With gratitude and best regards,

NICHOLAS ANASTASOPOULOS

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Fourth Schinias Beach Cleanup

On Sunday, April 25th, the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change launched its “Πράσινη Δράση – Καθαρά Δράση” initiative combining volunteering with environmental action at the National Park of Schinias-Marathon.

The “Friends of Schinias” mobilised a group of 50 volunteers, from a total group of about 500, to support the cleanup. We cleaned “Area Γ”, corresponding to approximately 400 x 500 meters of terrain between the two lifeguard stations in the centre of the forest.

The event was organized by Elix, a leading volunteer organisation, under contract to the Ministry. This called for a large-scale mobilisation of volunteers and team leaders, as well as the procurement of signs, tools, garbage bags and other information. The event was extremely well organised, and continued on Monday and Tuesday with special cleaning and education events for schoolchildren.

From our group, we extend a special thanks to:

· Loren Giallanella Murad, for mobilising most of our volunteers

· Heike and Lieke Defize, who once again handled the registration desk

· Alexander Ammerman, without who’s help little would have been done in terms of logistics and preparation

· Judith from Elix, who acted as team leader in Area Γ.

A very special thanks to Eleni Lambathadiou and Christine Milioni of the Ministry of Environment, and Eleni Gazi and all her team at Elix, for putting together a well-organised and very useful event. The forest and beach have rarely looked this spectacular. Congratulations!

And, as usual, a special thanks to all the volunteers who supported the cleaning!

Earth Day Cleanup: Sunday, April 25th 2010

In honour of Earth Day, the Friends of Schinias are participating in a cleaning of the National Forest of Marathon-Schinias on Sunday, April 25^th, 2010.

This event occurs within the framework of a wider volunteer initiative launched bv the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change named Green Action – Clean Action volunteer campaign, and the National Park of Schinias-Marathon is one of the two regions in Greece chosen to pilot the campaign.


As a result, we hope for a high turnout on Sunday, to help clean areas of the forest which we have not been able to access before. We will be working with Elix, a company with long experience in volunteering activities, has been chosen by the Ministry to coordinate the event.

We will be meeting at 09:30-10:00 at the parking lot of the Olympic Rowing Centre, and will clean from 10:00 – 13:00. A picnic lunch will follow at 13:00.

Please remember to bring:

a. A hat and long-sleeve shirt or jacket and mosquito repellent

b. Water to drink

c. Food to contribute to the picnic, if you will participate.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday, April 25^th!

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The OASA bus network is supporting the Schinias Beach Cleanup on Sunday, April 25th. It is providing buses with free transport for volunteers to and from the event.

Departures will occur between 09:00 – 10:00 to Schinias, and from 13:00 – 15:00 from Schinias back to Athens.

There are two departure points:

· From Platanos Square in Kifissia (πλατεία Πλατάνου)

· From Doukissis Plakentias Metro Station in Halandri (Δουκ. Πλακεντίας)

For further information, please call the OASA call centre 185, or check their website

http://www.oasa.gr and http://www.oasa.gr/index.asp?PAGEID=461