Saturday, October 4, 2008

Trashing the Outdoors

Not to far from where I live is one of my favorite squirrel hunting spots. This was the spot that I took my first game, and where I spend most of my small game hunting time, so this place is special to me. It is my peaceful refuge. My little chunk of paradise. And I'm sure there are others that feel the same way. Which is why it is so hard for me to stomach what I see every time I go out there. Garbage. And lots of it. It's everywhere I look. The amount of land that we have to pursue our sport on can be few and far between. Why would some people be so careless to destroy it? It doesn't take much to take your trash out with you. I am a smoker (I know, I'm hoping to quit soon) and one of the things I do is I make sure that I have a small baggy or empty cigarette pack that I can put my butts into. The same goes for the wrappers from my snacks or beverage bottles I bring in. If it comes in with me, it will surely make it out with me.
One of my favorite spots to go in my little haven is a small pond about a quarter mile back in. And next to the pond there is a rope swing hung. It's an obvious teen hangout spot. And if there is one, there are 20 or so broken beer bottles along the side of the hill. So, one might say it's the kids doing it. But walk up that same trail and you'll find a couple different ground blinds with a circle of trash around where a hunter once sat. And it's easy to say "it's not me". But, when you see this destruction, what do you do about it? Do you pick up what you can while on your trek or on your way out? It's not a mess that you made, but I believe it is all of our responsibility to help keep our woods, fields, streams, and lakes as clean as we can.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree with you more!

Anonymous said...

Chuck, I know how you feel... I took the girls out hunting this weekend and ran into the same crap. There was even a pile of newspapers still in the plastic wrapers they deliver them in. We hunt on state land off of a hiking/horse trail and you can tell that some people are just tossing their empty water bottles and food wrappers. If I knew were they lived, I'd dump their trash on their front lawn and see how they like it. I hate having my kids have to see what lazy and stupid people can do to a beautiful environment.

-Kevin

Anonymous said...

I am amazed everytime I hunt state land at the amount of trash in the woods. I have even seen washer and driers about 1/4 to 1/5 mile back in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Why in the world would someone go to all that effort just to dump a washer. I always do my part though and pack out what I bring in as well as what other leave.