There’s a real possibility that no one on Orcas Island knows beach trash better than artist Brook Meinhardt.

The man-made flotsam and jetsam that hugs the stellar shores of the San Juans has become somewhat of an obsession for this 3D artist – an obsession that has transformed into a flock of birds and ferry-landing signage declaring the Salish Sea plastic-free.

She hasn’t done it alone, either. Meinhardt and an army of local students have participated in her passion and added to her flock of beach-trash-feathered specimens. Last week, a group of first through third grade Orcas Island Montessori students took buckets to the beach and spent a few hours picking up zip ties (“The scourge of the sea,” according to Meinhardt), plastic straws, bits of balloons and ribbon, cap lids, rope, pieces of shoes and more. Then, under Meinhardt’s watchful eye and guiding hands, the students turned their trash collection into a new flock of avian objects d’art thanks to a grant from the Friends of the San Juans. The same grant will have her beach trashing with Laura Tidwell’s middle school science class.

“I was approached last year by the group to create a series of lesson plans that used beach trash to create art. A few weeks ago I worked with sixth-grade students at Spring Street School on San Juan who collaborated on creating one large bird,” she shared. “It was a fascinating process.”

What started as a walk on the beach with the family dog has turned into a county wide art project.

“I hadn’t been on Orcas that long when my kids and I rented a house at Crescent Beach. I was shocked to see so much garbage at the shoreline,” Meinhardt said.

It wasn’t too long before she and her kids conducted beach treasure hunts, ultimately amassing a collection that later provided resource materials for art classes.

She started teaching part time with Art for Orcas Kids about four years ago and found that her beach trash could help explain the benefits of recycling and the need to keep the beaches clear of garbage. Because some pieces of weathered plastic can look like bird feathers, the path from beach trash to the winged creations was a short one.

To date, the art instructor has worked with first through 12th grade students on the island creating well over 100 beach-trash birds, some of which will be featured in this year’s Earth Day celebration on Sunday, April 21, and an annual students’ art exhibit in May, both at Orcas Center.

Meinhardt looks forward to discovering other ways to repurpose the prolific amounts of beach trash that clog the sea’s shores.

“The message, of course, is to get the trash before it ends up on a barge somewhere, and to educate ourselves on limiting the amount of plastic we use and toss.”

In the meantime, Meinhardt’s art and her students’ recycled birds serve as artful reminders of our responsibility for the health of the planet.