{"id":24589,"date":"2026-02-08T10:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T10:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=24589"},"modified":"2026-02-08T10:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T10:02:15","slug":"on-board-with-rudy-socha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/?p=24589","title":{"rendered":"On Board With: Rudy Socha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    On Board With: Rudy Socha<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    <!-- no image --><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><\/p>\n<div>\n<section class=\"hydra-container\">\n<div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTG126-WAV-Socha-1024x768.jpg?resize=800%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Rudy Socha profile\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTG126-WAV-Socha-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTG126-WAV-Socha-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTG126-WAV-Socha-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTG126-WAV-Socha-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTG126-WAV-Socha.jpg 2000w\">                <\/div><figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Rudy Socha\u2019s nonprofit is aimed at cleaning up the tidal marshes.<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Courtesy Wounded Nature-Working Veterans<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/section>\n<p><iframe id=\"wxuzj5efbz\" src=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.dragonforms.com\/wxuzj5efbz\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Rudy Socha had recently moved to South Carolina when he noticed nonprofit groups doing the hard work of removing trash from beaches where tourists visited. But he also noticed that there was a lot of garbage where fewer humans and more furred, finned and feathered creatures hang out: the tidal marshes of the state. Creosote-soaked decking and abandoned boats littered the coast, and no one was doing anything about it. So in 2010, the same year he moved to the state from Ohio, Socha founded Wounded Nature-Working Veterans, a nonprofit aimed at removing larger debris from harder-to-reach areas. Now, the group is on track to be the first warm water state to rid its coastlines of large debris, including boats. We asked him about his efforts on the water.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can you tell me a little more about Wounded Nature-Working Veterans?<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019m the CEO and founder of Wounded Nature-Working Veterans. We are an IRS-approved 501c3, and we were founded in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>I realized no one was cleaning up the areas where wildlife actually lived. Everyone was out on the beach picking up the trash that tourists left behind, and that happens to be an area where the humans hang out, not wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>Wildlife breeds and repopulates out in the tidal marshes, and that\u2019s where they live. Our next generation of seafood is out there as well. At the time, especially down here in South Carolina, it was filled with a lot of old washed-away docks that were soaked in arsenic and coated with creosote. As we spent time getting the treated wood out, we noticed that there were a lot of boats. No one was working on them and I quickly realized that each 30-foot sailboat represents about 9,000 pounds of fiberglass, lead, batteries, fuel and other pollutants. Everything that\u2019s inside the cabin of that sailboat becomes a problem. And sailboats represent probably the majority of boats that are in the tidal marshes and abandoned because they cost so much more to remove from the waterways.<\/p>\n<p>So today we\u2019ve gotten about 220 boats out of the water. Nine of them have been shrimping boats, and I\u2019d say the mix is probably about 70 percent sailboats and 30 percent cabin cruisers and other power boats.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, we don\u2019t receive federal or state money, and so our biggest obstacle to getting everything done is funding. Right now, we\u2019re in a very good position here in South Carolina: If we can raise $5 million, we will be the first warm water state to have all of its large debris items, including abandoned boats, removed from its coastline.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How many volunteers does your organization have?<\/h3>\n<p>If we\u2019re working on removing abandoned boats, we can only take volunteers who have work boats that can actually help us out there on the site with us because it\u2019s dangerous. But this coming Saturday, aside from removing boats, we\u2019re laying a large oyster bed. We\u2019ll transport about 100 people and 800 oyster bags out to where we\u2019re going to lay this oyster bed with state DNR. Then, in two weeks there\u2019s an island in the harbor that accumulates a lot of trash\u2014big stuff\u2014so we\u2019ll be working to take another 100 people out there.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How many of your volunteers are veterans?<\/h3>\n<p>We have a strong veterans component. The reason we have veterans who participate with us is within a lot of environmental groups, they feel as though the defense budget is so large that it takes away from environmental and inner city and green programs, so they really don\u2019t like people who have worked for the Department of Defense, and they also think that all veterans are trained to go out and kill people, and they don\u2019t like that either.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t rely solely on veterans. They represent about one-third of the volunteers who get out there. But their wives, their kids, their friends and then just general volunteers from the public participate with us. I think we\u2019re making a pretty big impact.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do you have a sense of what the veterans get out of volunteering in this way?<\/h3>\n<p>I\u2019m going out on Thursday and I\u2019ll have a retired US Army veteran with me, with a boat, and I almost always have either Coast Guard officers or state DNR, or some sort of law enforcement officer with us. The Coast Guard guys are all active-duty military, and they participate a lot with us. I think what they get out of it is just a sense of accomplishment, and sometimes we do a little trash talking. New friendships are formed by people being together doing similar things. They\u2019re not clique-ish\u2014they don\u2019t form friendships just amongst the veterans. They form friendships among everyone who is participating.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Next:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/how-to\/on-board-with-tracy-nowacki\/\">On Board With: Tracy Nowacki<\/a><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Did you grow up around the water?<\/h3>\n<p>I did get to spend a lot of time around the water, but I didn\u2019t live in a place that was on the water. I grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, and the last place I lived until 2010, before I moved down here, was on the south shore of Lake Erie.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What kind of boat do you own?<\/h3>\n<p>We do have a boat, and it\u2019s Wounded Nature\u2019s boat. It\u2019s a 19-foot SeaArk Patrol Boat and it\u2019s a pretty durable craft. So that\u2019s what we use day-to-day, and our volunteers fill in with other boats as needed.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Do you boat for fun?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, and the big thing down here is shark-tooth hunting and fishing, and just boating in general. We generally make it a point at least once a year to invite all of our volunteers to go to a remote beach together, hang out, have a picnic lunch with their boats, and pick up some trash around the area, but generally it\u2019s just a social event. At the end of all our events, we do offer our volunteers\u2014and this makes us unique\u2014both beer and wine. And believe me, it\u2019s appreciated.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/how-to\/on-board-with-rudy-socha\/\">On Board With: Rudy Socha<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/\">Boating Mag<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><br \/>\n    Morgan Sherburne<br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n<BR><\/BR><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/boatingmag.com\/how-to\/on-board-with-rudy-socha\/\">Go to boatingmag<\/a><br \/>\n \t<BR><br \/>\n <BR><\/BR><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Board With: Rudy Socha Rudy Socha\u2019s nonprofit is aimed at cleaning up the tidal marshes. Courtesy Wounded Nature-Working Veterans Rudy Socha had recently moved to South Carolina when he noticed nonprofit groups doing the hard work of removing trash from beaches where tourists visited. But he also noticed that there was a lot of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,175,7947,1791],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-24589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boatingmag","category-how-to","category-march-2026","category-on-board-with","tag-boatingmag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krogragg.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}