City of Portola Officially Named a Clean California Community

 

Portola, CA – The City of Portola has officially earned the unique designation as an “Clean California Community” from Caltrans’ Clean CA initiative. This makes Portola one of 100 communities to earn the designation so far across the state and the first in Plumas County to achieve this designation. The designation reflects the City’s commitment to keep our community as clean, healthy and beautiful as possible.

The process began in June of 2025 with approval and direction of the City Council to pursue the designation. Taking the lead on this effort, our Public Engagement Officer, Brian Attama, rallied more than 25 volunteers over the last 11 months to implement an array of long-term activities in support of litter removal and prevention, beautification and environmental enhancement. As a result of our community’s involvement we were able to achieve the following:

·       3 city sponsored community cleanup day events

·       65 bags of trash removed

·       Over 6 targeted areas throughout the City addressed

These efforts were successful with help from our incredible community and volunteers, especially the following local groups and businesses who stepped up to make our goals a reality:

·       Ace Hardware

·       Addie’s Floral Cottages

·       Intermountain Disposal

·       Janett’s Place

·       Lena’s

·       Mountain Pizza

·       Nails by Joni

·       Nichole’s Coffee Depot & Deli

·       Plumas Bank

·       Portola Village Pharmacy

·       Rotary Club of Portola

·       Trout’s Café

To earn the Clean California designation, Portola completed at least 10 of 15 criteria to clean up and beautify the community including:

·       Creating an advisory body

·       Receiving community input

·       Performing a litter assessment

·       Organizing community cleanups

·       Measuring progress

·       Providing community education

·       Providing youth education

·       Installing anti-litter infrastructure

·       Enforcing policies

·       Establishing long-term planning

·       Scheduling collection drives

·       Establishing partnerships with local stakeholders

 

In recognition of our dedication to a cleaner community, Portola will receive “Clean California Community” signage, educational resources, automatic membership with Keep California Beautiful and recognition in statewide releases and Clean California materials.

The Clean California Community Designation Program is part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s $1.2 billion Clean California initiative, which was launched in 2021 by Caltrans to clean up, reclaim, transform, and beautify public spaces statewide. The program was developed in partnership with Caltrans, Keep America Beautiful and Keep California Beautiful.

The City of Portola encourages other communities throughout California to join the program and continue to clean up and transform California. For more information about the program and to take the pledge, visit CleanCA.com/Designation.

A Message of Gratitude & Future Events

We are deeply grateful for our volunteers, partners, and community members whose continued commitment helps make our community a place we can all be proud to call our home.

For upcoming cleanup events, activities and information, please visit of website at cityofportola.gov or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cityofportola.