Rudy Socha had recently moved to South Carolina when he noticed nonprofit groups doing the hard work of removing trash from beaches where tourists visited. But he also noticed that there was a lot of garbage where fewer humans and more furred, finned and feathered creatures hang out: the tidal marshes of the state. Creosote-soaked decking and abandoned boats littered the coast, and no one was doing anything about it. So in 2010, the same year he moved to the state from Ohio, Socha founded Wounded Nature-Working Veterans, a nonprofit aimed at removing larger debris from harder-to-reach areas. Now, the group is on track to be the first warm water state to rid its coastlines of large debris, including boats. We asked him about his efforts on the water.
Can you tell me a little more about Wounded Nature-Working Veterans?
I’m the CEO and founder of Wounded Nature-Working Veterans. We are an IRS-approved 501c3, and we were founded in 2010.
I realized no one was cleaning up the areas where wildlife actually lived. Everyone was out on the beach picking up the trash that tourists left behind, and that happens to be an area where the humans hang out, not wildlife.
Wildlife breeds and repopulates out in the tidal marshes, and that’s where they live. Our next generation of seafood is out there as well. At the time, especially down here in South Carolina, it was filled with a lot of old washed-away docks that were soaked in arsenic and coated with creosote. As we spent time getting the treated wood out, we noticed that there were a lot of boats. No one was working on them and I quickly realized that each 30-foot sailboat represents about 9,000 pounds of fiberglass, lead, batteries, fuel and other pollutants. Everything that’s inside the cabin of that sailboat becomes a problem. And sailboats represent probably the majority of boats that are in the tidal marshes and abandoned because they cost so much more to remove from the waterways.
So today we’ve gotten about 220 boats out of the water. Nine of them have been shrimping boats, and I’d say the mix is probably about 70 percent sailboats and 30 percent cabin cruisers and other power boats.
Unfortunately, we don’t receive federal or state money, and so our biggest obstacle to getting everything done is funding. Right now, we’re in a very good position here in South Carolina: If we can raise $5 million, we will be the first warm water state to have all of its large debris items, including abandoned boats, removed from its coastline.
How many volunteers does your organization have?
If we’re working on removing abandoned boats, we can only take volunteers who have work boats that can actually help us out there on the site with us because it’s dangerous. But this coming Saturday, aside from removing boats, we’re laying a large oyster bed. We’ll transport about 100 people and 800 oyster bags out to where we’re going to lay this oyster bed with state DNR. Then, in two weeks there’s an island in the harbor that accumulates a lot of trash—big stuff—so we’ll be working to take another 100 people out there.
How many of your volunteers are veterans?
We have a strong veterans component. The reason we have veterans who participate with us is within a lot of environmental groups, they feel as though the defense budget is so large that it takes away from environmental and inner city and green programs, so they really don’t like people who have worked for the Department of Defense, and they also think that all veterans are trained to go out and kill people, and they don’t like that either.
We don’t rely solely on veterans. They represent about one-third of the volunteers who get out there. But their wives, their kids, their friends and then just general volunteers from the public participate with us. I think we’re making a pretty big impact.
Do you have a sense of what the veterans get out of volunteering in this way?
I’m going out on Thursday and I’ll have a retired US Army veteran with me, with a boat, and I almost always have either Coast Guard officers or state DNR, or some sort of law enforcement officer with us. The Coast Guard guys are all active-duty military, and they participate a lot with us. I think what they get out of it is just a sense of accomplishment, and sometimes we do a little trash talking. New friendships are formed by people being together doing similar things. They’re not clique-ish—they don’t form friendships just amongst the veterans. They form friendships among everyone who is participating.
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Did you grow up around the water?
I did get to spend a lot of time around the water, but I didn’t live in a place that was on the water. I grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, and the last place I lived until 2010, before I moved down here, was on the south shore of Lake Erie.
What kind of boat do you own?
We do have a boat, and it’s Wounded Nature’s boat. It’s a 19-foot SeaArk Patrol Boat and it’s a pretty durable craft. So that’s what we use day-to-day, and our volunteers fill in with other boats as needed.
Do you boat for fun?
Yes, and the big thing down here is shark-tooth hunting and fishing, and just boating in general. We generally make it a point at least once a year to invite all of our volunteers to go to a remote beach together, hang out, have a picnic lunch with their boats, and pick up some trash around the area, but generally it’s just a social event. At the end of all our events, we do offer our volunteers—and this makes us unique—both beer and wine. And believe me, it’s appreciated.
