Volunteers Clean-up Trash by the Tons
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, COLORADO −Target shooters leave tons of trash on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land annually to be cleaned up by groups of volunteers.
BLM officials manage public lands that are open for public recreation. The public uses these lands for multiple activities, including target shooting, horseback riding, dog walking, hiking, and many other outdoor activities.
“While this is a popular recreation area,” says BLM Colorado River Valley Field Office Manager Steve Bennett, “its proximity to town unfortunately also makes it a popular dumping site.”
David Boyd, Public Affairs Specialist with Northwest Colorado BLM, the evolution from public open space to trash site to target shooting sites often has a simple beginning.
“It starts with someone dumping their yard clippings,” Boyd explains. “They think ‘it’s biodegradable, no problem.’ Someone else see this, adding to what looks like an established place for yard waste. The next person adds their yard waste and maybe a couch… It starts to look like a dump….and it’s the same area people go to shoot. There’s overlap.”
This trash or otherwise known to the BLM as “trigger trash” does not clean up itself. Every year groups of volunteers are recruited to help remove all of the built-up trash.
On April 9, 2013, approximately twenty volunteers gathered at Hubbard Mesa area−located two miles northwest of Rifle, Colorado−to participate in an annual clean-up to clear out some, two tons of debris left behind by target shooters.
Thanks to the help of local clubs−such as the High Country Four Wheeler and White River Trail Runners − the BLM, and volunteers, the mess is removed about once a year with the assistant of heavy construction equipment.
In addition to the Hubbard Mesa clean-ups, the High Country 4 Wheelers sponsors “Thirteen adopt-a-trails that will be cleaned-up yearly,” Says Greg Noss, High Country 4 Wheelers club member and volunteer clean-up coordinator.
The club puts in 250+ volunteer hours a year to clean up large amounts of trigger trash.
Without this annual clean-up, the land is endangered of being shut down due to the mass amounts of trash abandoned by dumpers and target shooters.
“People continue to buy trail runners, snowmobiles, dirt bikes, and other toys, but they also continue to close the land. Giving those people smaller and smaller space,” Says Chris a member of High country four-wheelers and volunteer at the Hubbard Mesa clean-up, “Someone has to clean-up the trash, so we don’t lose our land.”
The volunteers cleaned up various items, such as:
· Beer Bottles
· Car Parts
· Computer
· Couches
· Fire extinguisher
· Homemade targets
· Mattresses
· T.V.’s
· Etc.
“On the bright side, I have heard that this year is looking better than past years,” said Boyd. Although there have been reports of smaller amount of trash this year, the problem isn’t going anywhere.
BLM is doing everything they can do to reduce and exterminate the dumping issue. Kimberly Miller, Outdoor Recreation Planner at the Colorado River Valley Field Office of the BLM said that the BLM has posted no littering signs in each of the areas where shooting galleries are found. The no litter signs aren’t enough, and this issue needs to be brought to the public’s attention.
Nick Broeder, an outdoor recreationalist, believes that areas that have been known to have trash problems should have heavier patrol to catch the people who dump the large amounts of trash.
“Volunteers would not have to repeat this clean-up every year, if the BLM kept an eye on the more common dumping and shooting areas,” Broeder states. “It’s easy, stop the problem right when it happens rather than clean it up after the ‘dumper’ is long gone and know they’ve gotten away with it.”
For now, the no littering signs stay posted and the annual clean-ups continue.
The trigger trash issue might not be going anywhere, but neither are the volunteers who are willing to give up their own time to make their recreation lands beautiful again.