Tuscarora State Park (19-July-2016)

With being away for the last week I really needed to catch up on my blog posts. Penny though hadn't had a good walk since I left for NCJCS. With this in mind I decided to take her out for a hike before getting to my blog posts and of course it ended up turning into a clean-up. We headed over to Tuscarora State Park which isn't a far drive and we started at the boat launch. I figured if we stuck to the lakeside trails that are utilized the most I would be able to pick up a good amount of trash.

Fishing line was one of the most frequent finds on this trip. If you ever see it on a hike or while fishing please pick it up and dispose of it properly. Fishing line can be very detrimental to wildlife, birds can get entangled in it become severely injured and potentially die. 

Tuscarora has trash cans throughout the high use areas in the park. There is one not far from where I found this. I will never understand why people choose to leave things when it takes very little effort to dispose of it properly. 

The first pile of the day, all non-recyclables and all thrown away at the can near the boat launch. From here it was up the lake towards the beach area. 

This little fishing spot I have cleaned multiple times and the past couple it has just been a mess. On the left is the spot and on the right is everything I collected from it on this trip. 

I don't know how many times I have heard reports blaming the waterfowl for E. coli outbreaks at different parks. If you take a look around the beach areas you may find a more human cause for these. I found two diapers within sight of the beach at Tuscarora and this isn't the first time. Again, there are multiple trash cans around the beach and there is no reason for this. I reluctantly plucked these two from the brush with a stick and packed them into a bag. There was a third diaper along one of the trails that I could not get to. You would not believe how common these finds are in our state parks. 

Looking at the upper portion of the lake. 

This was the second pile of the day. A nice gentleman working for the DCNR kindly took the non-recyclables off of my hands and I packed up everything else into my car. I spent more time at Tuscarora than I wanted to, but Penny got a good walk and we were able to take out some trash. 

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

Like this project? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA