On my travels around the desert, I’ve come across a few places where someone has dumped loads of trash. In all my life I haven’t picked up even a tenth as much as Public Land Stewards of Bend (PLS Bend) volunteers removed during this event. PLS Bend is a group of volunteers that, in cooperation with the US Forest Service, organize cleanup efforts on public lands around Bend, Oregon. I volunteered to be a part of their 2022 China Hat Road clean-up.
I heard of this event through Casey LaDelle’s YouTube channel. Casey runs Cascade Heavy Rescue, an offroad recovery business out of Bend, OR. He led one of the groups and removed some of the heavier items during the event.
PLS Bend is a relatively new group that has grown from off-road vehicle drivers. According to The Central Oregon Daily News last year’s effort removed 68,000 pounds of trash. This year’s efforts are being supported by many Bend businesses.
At over 300 people, the turnout was far above expectations. A quick meeting to gather and orient the teams and we dispersed to our assignments.
I was assigned to patrol the gas pipeline. A well-maintained dirt road follows the underground line. The crew spread out on either side of the road collecting trash as we went.
Here is an example of an abandoned campsite along the road.
Here is the same site after we cleaned it up.
In another spot we came across this abandoned car.
Removing abandoned cars is a problem. They can’t just be picked up and scrapped. Fair time must be given to the registered owner to come and reclaim the car. This process requires the authorities to tag the car. Then DMV sends the owner a removal notice and a few days must pass before it can be lawfully removed. Happily, the Forest Service sent crews out marking cars the previous week.
I’m not sure about cars in this condition.
At 1 pm the event ended and New York City Sub Shop provided sandwiches for lunch. All told, about 300 volunteers removed 50,000 lbs. of trash from the forest. Including appliances and abandoned cars and campers.
It’s appalling to me that people leave so much trash on wild lands, but it’s really nothing new. As I’ve observed before, all of those obsidian chips spread all over the desert are trash from the stone age. It’s the same psychology, drop it and forget it. Now, I’ll admit that I’m glad to find those obsidian chips, I’m just observing that the desire to throw things away comes from something deep inside. To me, it’s the best argument for free dump sites.
Hat’s off to the organizers from PLS Bend. They did a wonderful job putting this together. From my perspective it couldn’t have been better. Give them some love and support. You can also be a part of future events. There is a sign up sheet at the PLS Bend website.