Firetower Road (8-June-2016)

I have had a lack of motivation in writing the blog posts and getting out this week. Repeatedly going out and doing these clean-ups and going back to places and just seeing the same thing over and over again just wears you out. I thought revisiting a place where I did a large clean-up last year of an illegal dump site and seeing that what I did had a lasting difference would help me get moving. So I headed over to Schuylkill County and set out hiking on Firetower Rd. Can you guess what the first thing I found along the trail was?...

I really felt like I was kicked while laying face first in a puddle of mud. It was not in the same place that I cleaned out last year, but it was a similar type of dump. This shouldn't happen. This area is owned by Blythe Township and if they just maintained the access points and kept them locked no could do this back on the trails. My next step on this area is to contact the township and see if they are willing to get the access points secured. If they can't or just won't I don't think I will even try to get this pile cleaned up. I put a ton of work into this area last year and to just keep doing it over and over again, when there is no one else willing to act on preventing this kind of thing from happening. That would really just be insanity. I will try to contact Blythe Township and the DCNR who owns adjoining property in the next couple weeks. It would be amazing if we could get this area secured then cleaned up. 

If you look back at my Firetower Road post from May 15th in 2015 you can see what this area looked like before I worked on cleaning it up. I at least was happy to see there was nothing new dumped here. 

Something old and something new. I must have walked by the two-liter on the left over thirty times and never noticed it until this trip. Only the bottom was visible and it is green, that could have been the reason. The deodorant was certainly a newly discarded item. It felt full and I can tell you I do not like the smell of champion. The inside of my pack smells like it now.

With the exception of the new dump I did not find many items along the trail out to the fire tower. It may just be that the trash is currently hidden by vegetation. It will be interesting to see this winter how much accumulated that can't be seen over the summer. 

Then there was this. It is new as well. I do think this would be another thing prevented if the area was properly secured. The fact that people go to this area to shoot doesn't bother me that much. It bothers me when instead of a paper target they use things like glass. This pile too, I won't do anything about until something is done about access at this site.

This would be the biggest problem. When seeing a gate cut like this I kind of understand why the Township gave up on securing this area. In other places people just cleared roads around the gates. Now that there are trail cams there is no reason to give up on places like this. The gates should be put back up and all other access blocked then cameras should be mounted around each gate for the first year at least. Problems like this can be fixed, people just need to care. 

The other side of the loop again didn't have much trash. There were several spots with firework casings, but they are cardboard and I generally leave paper products because they won't take long to biodegrade. 

I had over a pack full of trash by the end. Something really needs to be done about this site and I will do my best in the coming weeks to start it at least. 

The highlight of this hike was seeing a juvenile Northern Water Snake in a small vernal pool eating tadpoles. 

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

Lehigh River (3-Jan-2016)

This is a site I frequent often. It is the Palmerton side of Lehigh Gap and it doesn't matter when you visit there is always new trash. Sites like this are extremely discouraging, but there are things that can be done to change things around. Today I took out a little over a full bag of recyclables, with much more left at the site to do. My next step here it to try to find someplace to go with the non-recyclable trash. This week I will be writing to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center to see if they will be willing to take the waste once I remove it. Their facility is located on the opposite side of the river and hopefully with being a conservation organization they will help. 

More diapers! If people knew just how many used diapers are scattered about I think they would be appalled. I find them so many places. This other bottle was a first for me. There were multiple bottles like this filled with a white powdery substance. I went to pick this one up with to tongs and to my surprise the bottle bent like rubber, I have found these same bottles before and they are made with a rigid plastic. So, whatever was in this container changed the plastic in some way and not knowing what it was I decided it best to leave all of the bottles like it where they were. I do see new things everyday, this was something totally different though. 

These nicely bagged empty oil containers looked to have been thrown down from the road. This location has several litter problems. Items can be thrown down from the expressway above, items wash down the river and items are left by those who use the parking area that is off of an offramp here.

Lehigh Gap is one of my favorite places around. Both sides offer ample hiking opportunities with nice views and the paddle down the Lehigh here is nice day or night. I actually prefer a summer night paddle.

This group of fishermen surprised me today. I don't think I've ever seen a boat on this section in January before. I will point out that if you are on the water at this time of year, it is the law to wear a personal floatation device. As of 2015 new cold water regulations have taken effect and you can be fined if you do not abide by them. 

The riverbank, there was even more items washed up. I guess with the past couple rains we did get higher waters and new deposits. 

This is what was taken out. A lot of non-recyclables were left behind and because of all of the illegally dumped items in the parking lot it really looks like I did nothing at all there. I will try my best to get this site cleaned up much better this year, but for now I just have to stick to the recyclables. 

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