The 2025 Mayfly Festival is fast approaching and the City of Coos Bay Parks-Adopt A Park Pilot Program (AAPPP) will be participating in the festival for the first time with an activity booth. The park commissioners wish to highlight the wonderful Mingus Park watershed the City of Coos Bay manages in Mingus Park and the challenges of keeping erosion, dog waste, microplastics and trash out of this watershed which goes directly to the bay and eventually to the ocean.

Highlights at the AAPPP activity booth: Did you know “There is No Poop Fairy”? Contributors to microplastics in our park watershed. Actions YOU can do to keep our park trails, ponds and creeks clean. Join the Coos Watershed Association (https://cooswatershed.org/mayfly-festival) and all the partners who bring you the free and family friendly Mayfly Festival in Mingus Park in Coos Bay on Saturday, May 17th, 2025, from 11AM to 3PM.

The City of Coos Bay Parks AAPPP will be hosting an interactive trail walk featuring “I’m a raindrop” characters on park trails to solve the mystery of where raindrops that fall in Mingus Park end up. The trail walk is between the information at the AAPPP festival table in lower Mingus Park and at the Mingus Park Community Center-Historic WPA Scout Cabin (850 W Park Roadway) in the northwest corner of the park. The walk will help participants identify the park watershed features and provide information for park users to help maintain the watershed.

City of Coos Bay Park Commissioner Jamie Fereday and City of Coos Bay staff along with AAPPP volunteer CoCo Sutton, have prepared information that is fun, interactive and informative for all ages to explore the wonderful watershed in Mingus Park. The “I’m a raindrop” trail walk will help individual park users become better watershed stewards by understanding the importance of staying on trails to avoid erosion into the watershed; using truly compostable dog waste bags that are disposed of in proper trash bins (or pack in/pack out) while using the park; proper disposal of all litter always. These simple steps help keep our watersheds healthy.  We hope to see you, your family and friends at the 2025 Mayfly Festival in Mingus Park!