Arkansas Hunting banner

Clean up our public lands

1.4K views 29 replies 17 participants last post by  firehog  
#1 ·
Every year I see more and more trash in our wmas, creeks, lakes, rivers. Its more than aggravating. Then there are the abandoned stands, blinds, cameras, chairs, tents, and other gear some hunters just abandon in our woods. I do pickup some of the bigger trash from time to time and the wife likes to collect the old glass bottles and milk crates she finds in the woods but this year I am going to do more. In the past I've reached out to AGFC and the stream team but that all fell on deaf ears or they were just to busy with more popular areas. I'll be buying a few boxes or blaze orange contractor trash bags and some grabbers. My plan will be to spend atleast 1hr every hunting trip picking up garbage off of our public lands. I know I'll get my kids involved with it as well and hopefully other may notice and ask to join in or start doing so on their own. So this season if you see a guy in a tan tacoma with orange trash bags on the WMAs feel free to join in. I'll have extra bags.
 
#18 ·
I went to a lake last year and some idiots decided to set up a campfire right in the middle of the boat launch. Problem was, it wasn’t wood they burned but tires , plastic and looked like trash with glass. I didn’t have any bags to pick it up but was able to move a majority off the ramp. But it’s sad the way folks treat our public lands like their own home. I see tons of trashed out living places and I guess they just carrying that over to public land. I did a trash pick up several years back on a private piece that the owners allowed others to hunt and sacked up ten -40 gal bags. Cans dated back to 70’s.
 
#21 ·
And to think most of these culprits referenced above are likely U.S. citizens. They ain’t any better than the illegal immigrants discarding and trashing up the public lands near the border in the Southwest desert states. It’s easy for your mind to get off hunting, by being overwhelmed with all the discarded clothing and garbage.
 
#24 ·
When my wife and I would go out bank fishing, I would usually pick up trash when the fish weren’t biting around the area. Come back next week and it would look like I never cleaned it up.

When I was stationed in Alaska and fishing on the Yukon, we would run the boat as far up creek runs as we could. That was one of the things that totally amazed me was to be in an area where you didn’t see any trash.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Drove to a ramp today to see how far the water was down. It was very low and looked like someone decided to leave the trash from their camp out. Rubber gloves you name it . Plus an old chair and old vehicle fuel tank.

Please excuse my rant here. I think it’s safe to say anyone reading this can probably name 5 locations right now that they can list, that people literally have a “JunkYard” as their front yard. I’m talking beat up washer and dryers , stacks of bald tires, 10 dogs running loose , garbage everywhere, they literally have a path to get to the front door. No telling what the inside looks like. It’s Arkansas ! God Bless American Freedom! Right? But I can almost bet you, when those people step off that property onto state run parks, parking areas at WMA’s , boat ramps, down the roads , in our beautiful swamps, rivers and lakes they are leaving a trail of trash behind them! If one could care less about their own living conditions why would they care about public property or someone else’s land? Nothing like one of these trashers/hoarders that move in close by and property values plummet!