Well, mule deer rifle season is over – nothing else going on ’til after Thanksgiving anyway. I hate to have to say that I spend a lot of time cleaning up after hunting season – but I do. Every road is peppered with cans, paper, plastic water bottles, beer bottles and plastic bags. I guess people think that the Forest Service comes and cleans up – they don’t. There isn’t money to fund cleanup. So I carry a cantle bag and pick up trash every day I ride. I can tell you from experience that my cantle bag will hold 16 mashed beer cans. Of course, if I pick up a whisky bottle it takes a lot of the room in my cantle bag so I get fewer cans that day. Plus we drive slow and gather bottles and cans from the roads. Next week – or whenever I find time – I’ll start picking up in messy camps.
This is such beautiful country and free to the public to camp, hike, and explore. Hunting is subject to Game and Fish regs but allowed on the forest. Some people don’t appreciate what is given to them.
At the hunting club that I belong to, we assess a fine against any member that is found throwing out any type of trash. The problem is not with the members, it is usually with the folks out joy riding in the off season that do all of the littering. I just don’t understand it. We have a clean up weekend before season starts and it is amazing at the amount of trash that we pick up.
I think you are exactly right on the trash. It isn’t the good sportsmen who make the mess- but we pick up bags of trash every hunting season as well as off season. I wish more people were conscientious like your group– The Forest Service does no cleanup. I do my best. Any volunteers for trash duty? I could use a hand.
Wilma