ORANGE BEACH, AL – Phillip West was at a loss for words trying to describe how well the Pleasure Island beach initiative, Leave Only Footprints, was working.

“It’s made a … I can’t find the words … tremendous difference in the appearance of our beach and what we have to live with,” West, the city’s director of Coastal Resources, said.

Equally thrilled is Orange Beach Share the Beach Team Leader Lisa Graham. She and her charges patrol the beaches at dawn every day looking for signs a momma sea turtle came ashore and laid eggs in the sand.

“I’ve walked every day of turtle patrol so far and yesterday I walked and I found one can on my patrol,” Graham said. “It’s incredible. It’s so exciting.”

As encouraging as the results have been, West said the game changes when the busy season starts.

“Spring break, we were nervous going into, but that was really just a dress rehearsal,” he said. “It went pretty good but we still had a problem with too much glass on the beach.

“The real show starts Memorial Day weekend when families start bringing more and more gear and equipment and just stuff to the beach.”

Under the new rules everything must be removed from the beach at sunset. Items left are removed by crews in both Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. Signs with the new rules are posted at every beach access.

Orange Beach employs Beach Ambassadors who patrol in brightly-colored Jeeps to inform visitors of the rules. Gulf Shores uses Beach Rangers or interns working under the police department.

In Orange Beach the effort starts at 4 a.m. when crews from contractor Green Co. begin collections. Anything left on the beach will be picked up and as much as possible recycled.

“Some of it’s repurposed, like towels to a mission or to the Wildlife Center,” West said. “As far as chairs or tents, those damaged, they get recycled. Very little goes into the landfill.”

West said Orange Beach has been recycling items picked up on the beaches since 2007. A pilot program of actually setting out cans for recyclables is being tried at 30 properties on beaches in the city.

The seeds for the Leave Only Footprints effort were sown in July of 2014 when Gulf Shores councilmen Steve Jones and Jason Dyken were upset at the trash they saw following the July 4 holiday that year.

Gulf Shores began a pilot recycling program for the rest of the summer that blossomed into a full-time program the next year. But officials all over the island wanted to do more to improve beaches.

“It’s a precious resource, with that white sand, and it’s rare,” West said. “So how can you allow it to get to the point we’d all seen? We had to do this. We really didn’t have a choice.”

Complaints about the clutter was growing as visitors were making their feelings known about the trash and beach gear left behind.

“The negative perception that we received was incoming from the email and the phone calls,” West said. “We were getting more and more each year and last year was sort of the straw. Thankfully everybody decided enough is enough. We’re going to take the beaches back.”

The island-wide team effort included both cities having virtually identical laws and rules combined with partners from the Alabama Gulf Coast Business Chamber and Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism.

“One group couldn’t do it,” West said. “Everybody has pitched in. Because of that and our own cleanup efforts, it’s made a tremendous difference in the appearance of our beach and what we have to live with.”

The complaints from those whose stuff has been taken has been minimal so far, West said. The tourism board has a contractor review social media, West said, and deliver a report on what’s being said.

“I’d say 98 percent of the comments are still positive,” West said. “There are still a few people that aren’t happy about having to take their stuff up. But it’s just the right thing to do.”

On the frontlines Graham, one of the Beach Ambassadors, says there have been a few complaints, but most people like the cleaner beach. Orange Beach’s ambassadors started at the end of the 2015 summer season talking with beach goers about the coming changes.

“I’m thinking this year they are going to get out there and those people who are tempted are going to see most everybody taking their stuff in,” she said. “Those people who don’t want to, they’re going to take their stuff in because they have an example to follow. Like before when they followed the trashy example.”

A big part of making the program work, West said, is the education and outreach. If there’s a consistent program at a particular complex, ambassadors will meet with the managers and give out pamphlets, brochures and magnets about the program.

And following through on the new rules helps as well, Graham said.

“When we’ve been on the beach as ambassadors I’ve run into a couple of people and we ask if they are familiar with our program,” she said. “And they say ‘yes I lost my stuff last night. I read your material but I really didn’t believe the city was going to do that. I came out this morning and y’all did it.’”