Humans are filthy creatures.

Yesterday, I took my family to Falmouth Waterfront Park on the Rappahannock river just across from Fredericksburg, VA.

From a distance, the river looks beautiful, with a healthy riparian zone and clear water.

However, when we pulled up, we noticed that the trashcans were overflowing with garbage. Mind you, the only trashcans are next to the parking lot, so it should be a no-brainer for folks to see the full cans and then decide to pack out their trash in their cars. But, no...it was a literal overflow of garbage.

Then, getting close to the river, you see the people enjoying afternoon BBQs on their mini-Weber charcoal grills. One family had decided to hold their event on one of the only trails leading to the water's edge, effectively blocking river access. They placed their grill right on the path and used the overhanging trees to hang their swimsuits, towels, BBQ tools, etc. That didn't stop me, as I let my 100-pound labrador retriever lead the way right through their suaree. I absolutely basked in their looks, stares, and glares.

Once we got to the water's edge, I noticed a six-pack of empty Budweiser longnecks protruding from the sand. In the bushes next to this unsightly pile of glass was a discarded pair of swimtrunks. Coke bottles, cans, and paper trash littered the place. I picked up as much as I could find, and then got ready to try to catch a few smallmouth bass on my new custom 5-weight fly rod.

While wading on the river, I marveled at the interplay of rushing clear water, the angular rocks, and the lush river flora. However, it was easy to be distracted by floating debris and detritus. I just could not "get into my groove", and quit, exasperated after only 20 minutes on the water.

I got back to the place were my wife, son, and dog were hanging out playing in the shallow water to take off my waders. I slipped one foot out, stepped down, and felt something squishy. Not thinking, I tried to brush it away with my hand, only to find that I had stepped into and then touched a pile of human shit. I was furious. Absolutely floored that some jackass had squatted and shat about 3 feet from the water's edge where my son was playing. I used handful upon handful of sand to scrub away that dreck and succeeded in taking away a bit of dermis.

This morning, while waiting for the train at a nicely secluded station, I once again marveled at the new spring lushness of the early morning. However, once again, that mood of solace never fully developed as I mused to myself that it would probably require only a few steps into the woods to once again see the trash, the filth, and the stench of humanity on the natural world.

While I am sympathetic to the plight of illegal immigrants (I live 15 miles from the border) the trash they make is very bad. I hike up in the beautiful Huachuca mountains and see their garbage everywhere. Yhe plastic water jugs, the plastic wrappers in Spanish, discarded clothes and on and on. Littering is plain disrespectful to the environment.

the amount of trash out there in the desert absolutely astounded me. Water jugs were all over the place. There were acres of trash at places the illegals used as waypoints. Truly a crying shame, as that part of the border (the Altar Valley between Sasabe and Tucson) is breathtakingly beautiful.

I have seen beaches in very upscale communities just as filthy...some people are just filthy...not matter their background.

:hi: fellow Cochise county dweller! I'm up in Texas Canyon near Dragoon.

The detritus is amazing, but I have noticed in the last year or two since the permanent check points were halted that nature is starting to reclaim some of the damage. I recently rode one of the trails that I had pictures of from 2004, and it was amazing how the stuff was starting to break down and disappear. Still tons of junk but the plastic is starting to break down from the sunlight and the clothing is dusty and turning the color of the soil. Food cans are rusting and the brush is growing back over the trail.

Haven't found an abandoned vehicle in more than a year, and that last one was found quite awhile after the rush of them - we used to pull in about one a month. Of course there are still at least 3 vans stripped and ruined, stuck in deep sand that I know of, but then again I also know of an old model T in the same situation, although much further along in the rust-to-dust breakdown.

Perspective. Old pottery and arrowheads - somebody's litter...cool old purple glass and other bottles - trash. It's gross when it is modern and "fresh" and I too hate seeing it, but in the long run it is just evidence of our long presence on the land. (gotta ensure jobs for those future archaeologists, after all:rofl: )

Away from the tourist zones?

someone came along in the parking garage where I work and put religious fliers under all the wipers on people's windshields. Now, this is a four-story garage, with lots of cars, leading to lots of fliers being left. Today when I came in to work, those fliers were all over the place, a sizable number of people not even concious enough to put the flier in their cars and throw them away later. I should add that I work at a University, and that the people who use that garage are nearly all have high paying and well respected professinal careers or are studying for advanced professional degrees. These are supposed to be educated people.

While it pales in comparison to stepping in shit while in a river, I often find shit filled diapers in the gutters while walking from my office back to the garage.

Humans are filthy and ignorant creatures.

"Humans are filthy and ignorant creatures."

question: is there anything we can do?

'Bout the only thing you can do with the ignorant is attempt to educate them, but that doesn't always work. The wrong approach will put people off, and fundamentally, if someone doesn't wish to be educated, he or she won't be. I'm not particularly hopeful.

and found the asshole responsible for distributing them. I found such an asshole once puttig their mits on my car. I told them to kepp their fucking hands off of my vehicle and quit littering the parking lot. They had this look like I had just caught them stealing or something. You should find the distributors and return their trash to where it belongs. Like thrown all over their office. That shit infuriates me.

One, being the guy/s who put out the fliers (a ten-page newsletter, actually) and two, being the people who having recieved the fliers, opted to throw them on the ground. If someone had seen the first group they might have asked them to stop, but once their offerings -- however unwelcome -- had been left on the cars, the second issue comes to the fore, and it's the second group that's the object of my ire; they may or may not want to read the material left on their cars, but either way, where the hell do they think this trash is going to go once they throw it on the ground? They don't have trashcans at home they could throw it into? There are are no trashcans in the parking garage? (there are plenty of them.) It's lazy, ignorant and disrepectful in the extreme. I suppose they think it will magically disapear once they throw it down...out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

watching a parent throw trash on the ground with his or her children watching, or watching a child throw trash on the ground with his or her parent/s watching.

I suspect either way those involved don't know or don't care.

In Virginia, near Crabtree Falls. Our traditional campsite had been used by hunters? homeless? who knows as a base of operation. There was a PVC bucket full of oil, misc. garbage, chip bags, plastic soda bottles, about a thousand beer cans, used up condoms. We had to clean all this shit out before we could get to relaxing by the river. Really pissed me off.

By the way the Tye River is supposed to be excellent for fly fishing. Also check out Ramsey's Draft Wilderness beyond Staunton.

We did the Maryland Heights hike last weekend at Harper's Ferry where the Shenandoah R terminates in the Potomac. I loved it.

Mr. B and I went there before the little b's were born...

I love the view of Harpers Ferry from there. I hiked Old Rag yesterday, if you are familiar with that mountain. Great little scramble, arguably the best mountain hike in Virginia.

No dogs allowed and my son is too young for that scramble. We hike everywhere together as a family (dog included). It just wouldn't seem 'right' not to have him along.

However, it's up toward the top of my to-do list of VA hikes.

We were sitting on the top, looking out to the Blue Ridge and my wife remarked, "You know, in this vista I can not see the hand of man." That is no small feat in Virginia. She was right, there is a wilderness area to the west and north of Old Rag. It was great, wasn't too crowded either. Hardly any trash to speak of, a few discarded water bottles which we picked up and that was it.

If you're in Shenandoah National Park, the "hand of man" raised up and voted "aye" to buy (eminent domain?) the farms and let them revert to woods. The "hand of man" in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the great depression was what built a lot of the roads, overlooks, cabins, firebreaks, etc. The "hand of man" still maintains the trails, a lot of it via donated manual labor through various Appalachian Trail support organizations.

If you can't see the hand of man, then all those hands did something right.

(I like that park)
:hi:

people are disgusting

I have gotten in the habit of cleaning up places when I find them like that...I hate doing it but I hate to think of what happens to the wildlife when people do stuff like that..

and the trash was EVERYWHERE. How can you stage an event like that and make no provision to clean up after? I couldn't figure out if I was more mad or more saddened.

We went to Earth Day celebrations in Milton, DE this year. I was initially surprised by the large turnout, until I realized what environmentally-friendly displays the organizers had put on: a diesel tractor-pulled kiddy train and a MASSIVE (I mean this thing was HUGE) smoke pit BBQ belching literal clouds of smoke. Oh, and probably 4 out of 5 vehicles was an SUV (including mine).

And there's all kinds of public transportation where the race ends. Why does a person need a limo to run a seven mile race? :silly:

That being the Mississippi, and have noticed a lot of crap being dumped into the river as well. A local organization, Living Lands and Waters, headed by one Mr. Chad Pregracke, does what they call Xtreme clean up every year along (mostly) local waterways. I joined them a couple of years ago, before my work schedule changed and it floored me how much crap we pulled out of a small stretch of the river. Tires, a refrigerator (I am not kidding), various car parts, some condoms, furniture, and on and on. Literally enough to fill a small barge. It is sad that some people want to treat a treasure like the Mighty Mississippi like some type of dumping ground. By the way, I think Mr. Pregracke may be trying to go national. I know he got a HUGE corporation to help fund his clean up efforts. Not 100% sure of the website but if you run a search, it should come up. Probably living lands and waters.com or something like that.
On edit- www.livinglandsandwaters.org. They are currently doing cleanup along the Ohio River. Chad Pregracke started this organization because he truly cares about keeping the rivers and land around us clean and nice for all of us to use.

a few years ago.

I might be able to organize something in Fredericksburg.

proving they are just another type of animal? Remember these are the same people who think dumping raw sewage into the rivers and lakes they get their drinking water out of isn't a big deal, unless they want to swim in those rivers or lakes, then its a big deal. These same people are also the ones who vote for moral values. You should have seen the up roar on the Grand river this weekend. The coast guard was giving out tickets for pollution and noise from those V-8 powered speed boats. Never mind the facts that for the last 15 years it had been ignored by the CG. What happened was last year condo's went up along the river banks and the rich assholes started complaining about the noise and oil slicks. Another words unless its the rich person that complains about stepping in human shit or having to look at the garbage nothing would be done. Being from Michigan I see it all the time, if working man types uses it, over flowing trash cans, inconsiderate assholes and shit is accepted no matter how often they complain. Yet when the rich take over the area first they ban the working man from the area then laws are enforced in the areas plus as an added bonus, trash cans get emptied. Sure theres working class people that try to clean up the mess, but you got far more that think they are just creating jobs by creating a garbage dump, after all its not their job to pick up after themselves or others.

Btw, take this for what it is, a sarcastic opinion on how amerika works today.

in the back corner of the store, and LEAVE IT LAYING ON A DISPLAY!

I could smell something foul, and when I realized what she had been doing, I was FURIOUS! How dare she just leave that for someone else to clean up. I ran out into the mall and spotted her, and told her she needed to go back into the store and deal with HER MESS. A security guard that I knew noticed that something was wrong since I wasn't in the store, and came over.

The woman was giving me lip about it not being hers, and I explained to the guard how I KNEW it was. He told her to go back in the store and take care of it.

The woman said she'd never shop in the store again, and I told her to make that a promise!

People are truly filthy and disgusting. Check a public restroom for proof.

Anyone ever watch that British show on cable called How Clean Is Your House? Kim and Aggie really find some nasty places. I'd be so embarrassed I'd die to have my house on TV if it looked like that!

http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/100/index.jsp

Unless we're ready to get rid of that process, be ready for more trash.

one of the lakes we go to has a road that lies between two section of the lake, that is set up for fishing. There are porta pottys here and there and SEVERAL trash cans in every spot where a car can be parked.

I'm happy to say that we didn't see a lot of trash, but it was still frustrating to see soda bottles, candy wrappers, fast food bags and such, mere feet from an empty trash can! :grr:

Maybe a few anti-litter lessons should be included in high school health classes.

I swear I HATE the human race. Some individuals I like, of course, but en masse, humans really, really suck.

I see the sort of thing you are describing almost every day. It is certainly not limited to illegal immigrants despoiling our parks or deserts. I spend a lot of time out at Padre Island National Seashore. At the boat ramp, there are three dumpsters, which are usually filled to overflowing. And people, seeing that the dumpsters are full, don't take their trash home to dispose of it properly. No, they set on the ground in front of the dumpsters, so whoever comes to pick up the trash has to get out of the truck and PICK UP AFTER THESE PIGS.

I don't know who said that, or something like it, but that has been my slogan for years now.
Hey, with the current environmental shifts and changes, a major cancer may be shrugged off by earth--if you catch my drift -- this would be a good thing. Not every species is fated to exist "forever."

Maybe our time is up.

"Liberals love the masses and hate the individual" while "Conservatives love the individual and hate the masses". I think there's lots of truth to it in describing both sides.

my wife and I took a long walk on the beach near Daytona Beach yesterday.

We picked up bottles, plastic water bottles, foam cups, plastic bags, etc and put into the many trash cans along the beach. Amazing these cretins could not walk a few feet and throw the trash away themselves.

What pigs. I am confident they are all R's.

There aren't enough trash cans out here and we're between two parks, for pete's sake, with lots of tourist traffic.

and seen someone standing right next to a trashcan throw their trash on the ground instead. When they are standing right next to a !&%# trashcan!

Full of garbage, used as dumping grounds, etc. The big thing here in Los Angeles is to throw dirty diapers out your car window.

There is something about litter and watching people litter that makes me pretty crazy. I chase down even the tiniest scrap of paper that might get loose from my purse or car.

Here in SF, the thing that chaps my ass the most is watching some kid plowing down their bag of chips/cookies after school at the bus stop and then literally dropping the bag where they stand -- even though there is always a garbage bin just a few steps away from them. :mad: I like to walk up to them, pick up the garbage and say, "Excuse me, but you dropped this." They usually stare at me like I am nuts but then get the picture.

I honestly think humans as a whole are a disgusting species -- I kind of agree with Agent Smith's speech in "The Matrix" as to humans being a pestilence on the planet.

So I work hard at being less disgusting than most. :)

I'm in the car in the parking lot, waiting form my wife to come back out. I see a couple of teenagers in a car roll down the window and throw out the foil cover of a packet of BBQ sauce. I walk over, pick it up, and slap it onto thier car's windshield, where it sticks.

The girl gets hysterical, saying that her dad was a deputy sheriff and that's she's going to call him. I said "do it...and explain to him why you're littering."

Her boyfriend got out of the car, came around, realized that I had about 100 pounds on him, turned on his heels, and got back in.

to be the "bad ass". I really don't understand high-school kids today. They act as if they're ten-foot tall and bullet proof. Is it because they are so protected as minors and feel totally invincible? I don't know what happened to parenting, but around here the kids think they're "Real Gansta's". Little assholes, the majority of them...

You are right, many people are absolute pigs. I have a beautiful river right in my backyard and it kills me how much crap I see floatin down it after a big rain. In the summer, we have groups that go out in canoes and go up and down the river retrieving trash along the way. It's really cool. I went with them one year and it was fun. Nowadays on the weekend they're comin down the river, we try and have lemonade and snacks in our backyard for them as they pass by.

Cool picture by the way. I hope in the end of it all you had a peaceful time anyway.

that dam in the background has been completely removed, restoring 180 miles of anadromous fish migration routes.

Did you drive to the river?

collects at the waters edge from people tossing their garbage where ever and whenever they feel like it. Bottles, cans, plastic, garbage and junk mixed in with broken branches that get snagged on trees. His neighbors have told him that he may even find tires, appliances etc after a large rain..when the river is rushing fast.

I see garbage bags dumped in ditches along roads, diapers thrown in parking lots, beer bottles strewn along roadways. It makes me wonder what in the world is wrong with some people.

I'm sorry you & your family had that experience Squatch.

Just outside the western border of Baxter State Park in Maine lies Harrington Lake. It's a decent sized cold water lake surrounded by mountains and filled with landlocked salmon, brookies and togue (lake trout). My wife and I camped there last fall at the end of the season just before the first snows. The wardens and/or forest service had done their annual season's end cleanup and the sites were all in near pristine condition. As I often do, I collected a small bag of cigarette butts and bottle caps that were missed and left the area even cleaner than I found it. I decided to go back and fish the following spring (this spring) and to my horror found every campsite totally trashed. Styrofoam worm cups, tangles of monofilament, beer & soda containers, six pack holders, 30 pack boxes, styrofoam plates, empty (mostly) outboard oil containers, you name it, were laying everywhere. The whole area is pack it in/pack it out but only half of the equation was complete.

At the most remote site I found the situation to be the same but to make matters worse found a huge pile of human crap in the fire ring along with wads of used toilet paper. Somebody (perhaps more than one scumbag) decided to crap in the fire pit despite the fact that there was a privy pit toilet about 200 feet away down a meticulously maintained path with a sign pointing the way. Repulsed by the whole experience, I drove the two hours home that night in a cloud of rage.

Encounters with evidence of human filth are always disturbing but what enrages me the most is the fact these campsites on this lake are primarily (and almost exclusively) used by "fellow" fishermen at this time of year. How could people who claim to "love the outdoors" and travel many miles on dirt roads to access these beautiful places figuratively, and in this case literally, crap all over the very beauty they worked so hard to find?

I am not a violent man by any means but will make no promises of passivity if I ever catch someone crapping in a campsite or any other place not designed for such activity.

here -- the most beautiful place (IMO) in the world...the beach at Rum Point, Cayman --

Part of this, at least, involves all of the cutbacks that government agencies around the country have been facing, largely due to the enormous pressure from Repubs all over to slash taxes. All of that lost revenue comes from somewhere, and much of it will come from being able to pay someone to come empty the full cans and haul the trash away. It doesn't take a huge intellect to know that anyplace where people congregate will accumulate trash, and services need to be provided to help clean up after them.

x(

I live out in a rural area, and one thing I've noticed is that since I'm downwind from a good sized city(aprox. twenty miles away), we get lots of trash blown out here from this city. Especially those GD plastic grocery bags. I've seen those things just blown along, settling down in trees and land dozens of miles away from where they came from.