Our TU chapter does roadside and stream cleanup on two streams. A mile of the Battenkill near the Vermont border and a longer stretch on the Kaydeross , a local stream.(Actually has a longer Indian name but this is what everyone call it.). In between the Chapter trips I do a personal pick up on a half mile stretch that gets fished a lot on the local water. This stream is open all year long but gets little fishing pressure in the fall. So when I go up there in October the litter isn’t too bad. This last trip I kept a record of what I picked up. The stream is pretty much right along the road. In one place is a spot people pull off under the trees and sometimes have a small fire. That is always a good place to start. I found an empty 12 pack of Bud, 3 styrofoam worm containers, one broken salted minnow jar, a Eagle Claw snelled hook folder with 2 snelled hooks still in it, several dozen cigarette butts and 3 cardboard backed plastic covered spin lure packages, empty, and two McDonald bags. There were deep ruts where some one had gotten stuck in the mud. Further along I found 4 more styrofoam worm cups, 2 massive tangles of spinning line caught in the bushes that I cut up, 3 more beer cans, 2 large plastic water bottles , a single mans sock. A chapstick tube, several candy wrappers, a cushion which was by a couple of forked sticks stuck in the ground at waters edge, another McDonalds bag was flattened under the cushion and more butts.A couple of empth cigarette packs and a single boot. It was stuck between rocks mid stream, torn at the bottom, kind of a rubber below the knee boot. It looked like someone had just walked out of it. Most of the stuff was down on the trail along the stream not along the shoulder of the road. This was not a lot of junk, but it had only been 4 weeks since a massive cleanup by our chapter. Why do you think people have to leave garbage like this along a stream? It is so easy to carry out what you carry in.
Sad, isn’t it? It’s everywhere you look these days. Responsibility to society and to oneself seems to be a waning virtue.
“Man has an inexhaustible ability to beshit his environment, with politicians well in the lead”…Jim Harrison
Time to bring back the “Keep America Beautiful” commercial with the crying Indian…
As I watch with disgust the amount of streamside and roadside litter accumulate; I have to wonder what happened to the lessons I was taught when I was younger.
Maybe the first lesson that needs to be taught by today’s “uber” parents is NOT how to kick a soccer ball but how to “kick” the littering habit.
I posted about this in the spring but it is worth repeating;
I spent a lot of time fishing the backside of Cape Cod this spring. On a beach with heavy surf there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam. Enough so that people build elaborate sculptures of driftwood and trash on the shore.
Two kinds of litter stood out among all others.
The first was plastic water bottles. The things were everywhere.Multiples per square yard.
The second item bothered me even more.
Mylar balloons with ribbon.
Looking around you couldn’t miss seeing one or several tangled in driftwood, seaweed, or the grasses.
Most litter is just that, the thoughtless, careless tossing aside of what is no longer wanted.
Mylar balloons on the other hand are purposely released in some sort of celebration.
Like the plastic bottles, these things aren’t going away soon and will continue to add up untill people smarten up and not let them loose.
Like discarded mono, I’m sure birds get tangled in the ribbon. And any creature,such as sea turtles, that eats a balloon mistakeing it for a jellyfish will die.
Support politicians who support the environment
[This message has been edited by dudley (edited 02 November 2005).]
Mantis - I have seen several popular fishing spots in central & western NY receive trash barrels supplied by either local TU chapters or Boy Scouts. They have to be maintained and emptied but it makes the clean up easier and keeps the negative effects from the slobs to a minimum.
As a father of a 5 year old, I have, unfortunately, seen my share of ballons both mylar and rubber, that were unintentionally “freed”. To borrow 3PO’s saying, “Curse my … body”, I am just not always quick enough to grab the string before they get too high for me. And, no, only a couple of times was it because I trusted my son to hold onto it, the others were freed due to forgetfulness and not paying attention. It is amazing how quick a balloon can escape when you quickly open the trunk and turn your head for “just a second” because the wife or my son is saying something and distracting you. Not excusing my mistakes I am owning up to them and pointing out that, perhaps, not all the mylar balloons you have seen were intentionally released. I have, honestly, not intentionally released a balloon since I was in high school which was 16 years ago. And that incident was actually part of the class and was made from tissue paper, which I believe is biodegradable.
Anyone who wants to flog me, feel free. I do not try to free balloons, but I make mistakes and a few have escaped me.
Paul
Gandalf,
There’s two kinds of people in this issue; Those that know better,
and those that don’t care.
You, my friend, are one of the good guys.
I will often pack a trash bag, and pick up as I walk home. Its a small thing. but every bit helps.
- rriver
I lived on a small pacific island off Vancouver island , there was no public access to our island . Still we got jetsom from all over the world cluttering our beaches . Worst were the plastic bleach , milk , oil etc containers . Occasionally we’d get the japanese glass fishing floats which we coveted . Sometimes you’d get a sneaker or two . but the large plastic floating garbage has polluted every beach in the world .
Dudley,
Thanks for the kind words. I do not like to litter, my dad raised me to be aware of what to do to not litter. Whenever we went camping he and my mom made sure we left the campsite as clean, or cleaner, than when we arrived. My dad always reminded us that one of the best ideas the Native Americans had was to carry out what you carry in so that you did not leave your trash strewn all over. While I do not have any NA in my ancestors, I agree with my dad and find it a shame that my European ancestors did not have the same respect.
However, there’s also a practical side to not losing balloons, as my son will cry if a balloon gets lost, so I actually have two incentives to try and make sure the balloon makes it into the house and is not “freed”.
Paul
When I was in MO there was the Current River. Loved that river, but I hated the canoe herds that would dump trash. I would always try to garbage bag for a few hours on my way out of the river. Lots of trash and it really ****** my off to see it that way.
In the back pocket of my vest are two (or more) plastic bags. They are never there too long, but I always replace them when they get full.
I like to leave with a full bag. Makes me feel good to know that the 5 minutes I spent cleaning up made the place nicer for the next guy.
jed
I’ll keep repeating myself…If everyone just “took out” just a LITTLE MORE than they “took in”, we probably wouldn’t need to have a small group spending an entire day picking up trash.
Mike
This site’s about sharing!
Ohiotuber,
Agreed, but if everyone just took out what they brought in we’d be making some great strides.
Paul
Miracle of miracles, Our fishing areas are becoming cleaner every year. Fishers are cleaning up to the point of not having much to do at all on the Cohocton River and that litter which accumulates is usually jetsam from passing cars more than than something left by fishers.
When I think back to the 1950s and how our roadsides looked at that time, I marvel at how short a time it took to get this done, only 55 years and the roadside dump has all but disappeared.
Ol’ Bill
Hi Everyone,
I went down to the last place on PEI, Leard’s Pond to fish on Saturday for Atlantic Salmon and when I got there the pond was up about a foot. I forgot about all the rain we got on Thursday, the pond was pretty dirty so I decided to take a look around and watch to see if any fish were moving. Anyway I started picking up beer bottles and because all the leaves were of the trees and the heavy rain pretty well washed all the leaves off the bottles they were pretty easy to see. I ended up with 130 small beer bottles, one large
beer bottle, 1 large pop and one small pop. I even found 2 old style beer bottles, the short stubby ones, so you can amagine how long they were there!!! I will take some garbage bags with me for the next trip. The garbage stands out like a sore thumb when all the leaves are gone. I probally could take 2 or 3 garbage bags home with me no problem. It still amazes me that some people just don’t care about their rivers. As Bamboozle had said earlier about what he was taught, I was always taught to take my garbage home with me. It’s to bad other people woudn’t do the same!!!
Alan Mills (salmonguy)
Seeing trash along the stream really ticks me off too. I’ve only been involved in one “official” stream clean-up, but have picked up an awful lot over the years on my own. I was checking out some possible canoe access points along the Lower Mountain Fork River one time, and almost filled the bed of my pickup at one stop. I was talking to a fly shop owner one day who told me about fishing a stream I was very familiar with. A rancher who owned land along the stream had stopped him and his friend to see what they were doing. He didn’t seem too friendly at first, but then he noticed the trash bags hanging from their belts about half filled with stream litter. When he discovered they had been cleaning up “his” stream while fishing, he told them to feel welcome on his place anytime.
Larry Compton
This is a confession…
I’m always picking up stuff at our parking spots and access spots but this time I’m the culprit. I left a big piece of black plastic along the stream.
I was driving downstream on a path more suited to cows than cars. The path leads under a new concrete bridge and the water spray they were using to prevent too rapid of a cure had made an awful mess of the path. Additionally, heavy equipment had been back and fourth through the area stiring the mud each day. I, like the damn fool that I am thought I could blast through with my Geo Metro…and I did. On the way out, I was going like the very devil in order to blast my way back out. The mud was flying like the water from a speed boat and I thought " Dang, I’m not going to make it. About then I heard a wallowing scrape bump bump like the Queen Mary giong aground. When I got through the area I got out and looked back to see what all the fuss was about.
There in the mud lay the big black plastic bumper cover from my poor little car…made me so mad I got the helll out of there and havn’t been back since.
Ol’ Bill
Well Bill, now that you’ve confessed, you should repent. And for your penance go and get the bumper cover. You’ll feel better. We’ll feel better.
Mantis, I (and about 87 other local volunteers) feel your pain. Missouri has deep fines for littering and ran a kid’s contest within the last few years. The kids created commercials against littering. They were all fabulous.
From research I’ve learned that the most likely litterer is a 15 year old boy. I guess they grow up to continue their bad habits and pass them onto their kids.
Other sources of litter include us well intentioned folks who leave our trash and recycling out for pick up and aren’t around when a wind gust spreads it all over the neighborhood. In addition, recycling and garbage trucks themselves shed a small percentage of the stuff they pick up.
Subscribers to garbage and recycling services, besides doing as Jed does and keeping a bag in the vest to pick up, need to agitate for heavy, stable containers and efficient pick up service.
I have felt for some time that bait tubs should be sealed with a sticker that says either “Don’t litter, dispose of this container properly” or “25 cent deposit”. Bait containers should be one piece, so that the lid remains with the tub, or tethered together, possibly with the above mentioned stickers. One limitation of this idea is that it comes from a flyangler, not the bait crowd itself.