AUSTIN — Nearly 5,000 hard-core Adopt-A-Beach volunteers braved thunderstorms and wind Saturday to haul more than 60 tons of trash off Texas beaches for the 29^th annual Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Spring Cleanup.

"Adopt-A-Beach volunteers are a dedicated group," Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said. "I want to thank them for making a difference. They are what makes Adopt-A-Beach one of the most successful volunteer efforts in the nation."

Saturday’s cleanup wasn’t just all work — at most sites volunteers enjoyed a party afterward hosted by cleanup sponsors such as HEB, Shell or Schlumberger.

And aside from the usual cigarette butts, beer cans and diapers, some pretty odd and interesting items were found, including a urn full of ashes on Galveston Island, crab traps and tires at Sargent Beach, a catheter bag at  San Jose Island, a dead armadillo and a rattlesnake at Magnolia Beach, lab samples and ping-pong balls at Mustang Island State Park and a 6-foot piece of rail from a railroad track at Austwell Pier that dates back nearly 100 years.

Adopt-A-Beach volunteers at Surfside even turned over a few injured seagulls to a local wild animal rehabilitation center. The volunteers said the birds had broken wings from wind gusts and head trauma from the hail storms that had just swept through before the cleanup.

Adopt-A-Beach volunteers make Texas beaches cleaner for every living thing that depends on them, from local tourist bureaus to crabs, birds and turtles. Over the past 29 years, 481,000 volunteers have picked up more than 9,100 tons of trash from Texas beaches as part of the General Land Office's Adopt-A-Beach cleanups.

To learn more about the Adopt-A-Beach program, visit www.TexasAdoptABeach.org or contact the GLO at 1-877-TX COAST. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/texasadoptabeach and follow us on Twitter at @TXadoptabeach.

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