The sun was shinning and the temperature was perfect today. I wanted to check out some sites further north, but with remaining snow in some areas, I thought it would be best to stick close to home and in places I know are snow free. This brought me back to Beltzville Lake. In total I took four hikes, two on separate gamelands and two in different areas within the state park. The first stop was on gamelands. I could see cans from the road so I stopped. There really wasn't much at this site. Walked around the field above and only found two items other than what was around the parking area.
Only seven items on this first stop. It was nice to see such a clean area.
Not to far down Pohopoco Drive I made my next stop at another gamelands. I had never stopped at this specific site before and it was good to walk someplace new. This site though was not as clean as the last and before I even started out on the hike I had to spend some time cleaning up around the parking area.
This was all just on the edge of the parking pull off. This is where I first started running into Multiflora Rose. I am sick of Multiflora Rose. For those of you not familiar with this plant it is non-native, highly invasive and has many large thorns. I do not have a photo of it on here. I will try to do a couple invasive species posts this spring and summer and include it. I loaded the parking area trash into my car and headed down the trail.
Cans and bottles as always were sprinkled throughout the woodland edge of this trail going down to the lake.
A large portion of the lake is frozen, but open water can still be found. This is looking down the lake towards the dam.
Usual items on the lakeside. My lure collection just keeps growing.
Two unexpected items. This was the first false can I have picked up. The back of it even had fake nutrition facts and all. They are apparently marketed as a reusable cup and had a slogan on the side as helping reduce, reuse and recycle. It doesn't really help if it ends up in a lake. Where the Dawn came from I haven't the slightest idea. It was in a farm field not far from the lake.
This second pile of trash ended the second hike of the day. I wish I would have kept count of all of the chicken liver containers I have found around Beltzville since I started this project. I am sure it would be well over 100 by now.
I then drove to a sight I have cleaned multiple times. Like several other places around the lake this one has an old road that the lake has consumed. Right in this area where the road meets the water I always find trash. There hasn't been one single time I have visited this site where there hasn't been trash. This visit was no exception.
Most of the items look like they had drifted in since my last visit. The green chair piece, however, has been there for some time. Before today it had always been wedged in under driftwood logs and I was never able to pry it out. The winter must have shifted everything and it was very simple to remove it on this visit.
No, I didn't find this little man like this. He was washed up in a debris pile. I just thought I would let him sit down and get one last good look at the lake before I took him out of there.
I do try to take as many small plastic items as I can. A couple of these containers are filled with small plastics. The one item that stood out here were shotgun sabots, many of these were scattered throughout the debris piles in this area. I think these sabots need to be made biodegradable and not out of plastic.
With a lot of small non-recyclable items I did not remove anything from the non-recyclable bag for the end photo from this hike. It might not look like it from the photo, there was much in that bag though.
I then drove to another access to the park that had a place to dispose of the non-recyclables. It was so nice out I just had to take one last hike here and that ended up yielding some trash as well. On this portion of the lake only a thin sheet of ice met a large patch of open water. The wind was blowing with some force and the edge of the thin ice sheet was breaking off and blowing on top of the ice behind it. That is what is in the photo above.
I didn't take many photos along my last hike, but this is what I found as far as trash. I was getting tired by this point and I loaded up the recyclables and walked over to throw away everything else in a nearby can. On the way back to the car I spotted something.
It was the reward for cleaning up I guess. I drove over to the other side of the lot to get a closer look. I got out and sat on the front of my car just watching. Back and forth this flew somewhat slow and near to the ground. I knew it wasn't a Red-Tail, but I wasn't sure what it was. Steven Kloiber, one of the best birders I know, was able to identify it for me as a Northern Harrier. So thank you Mr. Kloiber for the id. It was really nice to see and was a great end to a trash filled trip.
You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash
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