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Trail Clean-up article to appear in Peterson's
Here is the draft Chris Pearson sent me. He said he would include pic's, but wasn't sure which ones will appear in the magazine:
Clean it Up!
I’ll never forget the feeling I had when I pulled up to a locked gate at my favorite trail in Colorado. It was a short trail that was close to home and had eased my mind many times after a hard days work. It had always been a hard trail, which kept the riff raff from ruining it with their garbage, drunken parties, and tire spinning adventures off the road. After investigating why it was closed I found out it was because the stirring up of silt by vehicles passing through a deep river crossing was supposedly polluting the nearby town’s water supply. No artificial pollutants were found during the investigation, just natural silt from the river itself. The crossing was miles from town, and the trail had been open since I’d lived there, why close it now? Because a group of people in that town wanted to close it and made it happen along with the help from local authorities.
We too have the power, even as a small group, to keep off road recreation areas open by keeping them clean, addressing and solving problems that other people might have with us traveling on these trails, and in general showing that we as four wheelers genuinely care about more than ourselves. The majority of the time people who trash these off road areas aren’t 4x4 enthusiasts at all, but when other people that use the area see the dumping piles and blatant neglect for the land they can only assume it’s the people who bring their vehicles to the area. After all who would walk a pile of old mattresses up that far into the woods? I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry mattresses when I’m out on the trail.
Areas like these have sometimes been dumping grounds for years but during the 10 years the Two Trackers Four Wheel Drive Club has been cleaning them up they have found that if the garbage is gone, the dumping usually stops for good. The event has grown to be one of the biggest trail system cleanups in the state and attracts around 200 people a year including local government representatives. Through the clubs planning they have managed to get local companies to donate new vehicles, dumpsters, dump trucks, bobcats, food, and above all their time for a good cause that has changed some skeptical minded higher ups in the local DNR and Forest Service for the better. Over the entire decade that they have been organizing this event the volunteers have removed a staggering 650 yards of garbage not including 200 gallons of used oil, 112,000 pounds of shingles, thousands of tires, and 3 vehicles. This year was no different as people invaded a particularly bad area and ended up filling four 30 yard dumpsters with trash and a 26 ft. moving truck with tires that will be recycled into door mats and sold by the club.
It was truly saddening to see how bad the area had gotten over the years, and even more depressing that the 4x4 crowd got some of the blame. Granted trail cleanups aren’t as fun as trail rides but these days it seems like there has to be a balance between them both otherwise there will be no more trails to ride on. I urge all of you to get more involved with this aspect of four wheeling and make a difference around your favorite spots before you suffer the consequences of other people’s ignorant actions.
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May 5th, 2008, 03:17 PM
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