Pick Up Your Trash

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Joined
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Leaving junk behind makes a terrible impression. I'm sure most here do pack it out? Right? OK? I know I sure harped on crews and threw the little 5 Hour Energy bottles I'd picked up into their crummies--sometimes with nasty notes about fines for littering. They like to leave the plastic water jugs out too.

Here's a rant from another forum.

I'm certain the overall complexity of this issue is beyond the scope of my meager mental capacity- I'm sort of a knee-jerk reactionary environmental extremist with a weird, idiosyncratic craving for access.

I just spent a few days free camping the forest roads between Kalaloch and Clearwater. It's stunningly beautiful rainforest back there- even the twisty paved roads have a strip of moss running down the center.

The destruction from logging on the three branches of Kalaloch Creek was utterly astonishing. The gravel and dirt roads are pouring sediment into the creeks as they slowly dematerialize. Huge slash piles every quarter mile.

Perhaps most shocking was the amount of trash left behind. THOUSANDS of empty gallon containers of hydraulic fluid, antifreeze, fuel additives and various kinds of toxic effluvia left to contaminate the environment. Broken hydraulic hoses hurled into the bushes in several locations. Also, the refuse of countless lunchbreaks- Rockstar, RedBull and other macho, "power" beverage containers along with "pink slime and crackers" type snack containers.

What kind of pigface morons are contracted to do the logging work out there? I realize hikers could have snuck in there and dumped heaps of trash around the slash piles, but I doubt it. Park enforcers seem to spend all their time out on 101 shaking down vacationers over minor paperwork violations while the forest is being trashed.

Hell yeah, make it wilderness, and don't ever cut it again. I'd like to see the spaces filled in between the 2 sections of the park, slowly, over time. And yes, it would be nice if a few of the roads could be maintained (properly) to allow continued access to this part of our unique rainforest environment.

I make my living from forest products, but I believe strongly in preserving large chunks of our ecosystem as wilderness. Thanks for reading my little rant.
 
My opinion, it ain't that hard to contain and pick up your trash and it's nothing but laziness to leave it.

Professionalism, or lack thereof, goes a long way; positively or negatively.
 
You wanna talk about trash in the woods? I know where a D-8 sized Terex (the Lime Green type) cat rolled off a landing down into a canyon, and the logging company that owned it didn't want to do the work of pulling it out. So there it sits, growing blackberries. The hooker hiked down and removed all traceable numbers/identification.
 
You wanna talk about trash in the woods? I know where a D-8 sized Terex (the Lime Green type) cat rolled off a landing down into a canyon, and the logging company that owned it didn't want to do the work of pulling it out. So there it sits, growing blackberries. The hooker hiked down and removed all traceable numbers/identification.

Go get that baby!! Sounds like a fixer-upper. :D
 
Go get that baby!! Sounds like a fixer-upper. :D

Actually, one of these days I'll hike down and get pictures of it. I think mile9socounty knows where it is too. It's on State ground near here...

On another trash-related note in the woods, a couple firefighters hauled in about 1700 pounds of rigging they found on a landing after a logging
company headed out to a new job. The company gave the one guy a new chainsaw (MS-210) for his efforts...
 
The same goes for unimproved shooting areas( usually gravel pits). Before long the dead refrigerators, garbage, ect. show up plus all the brass, shotgun hulls, empty ammo containers...... Pretty soon it get posted and a gate goes up.
 
Ultimately, a lot of the responsibility for that kind of cleanup falls on the sale administrators. If they don't enforce the "clean logging" clauses in their contracts, it's natural for a slack outfit to take advantage of the situation. Time is, of course, money.
 
Ultimately, a lot of the responsibility for that kind of cleanup falls on the sale administrators. If they don't enforce the "clean logging" clauses in their contracts, it's natural for a slack outfit to take advantage of the situation. Time is, of course, money.

Once you make the siderod come back and load up the garbage, it usually doesn't happen again. But it made me feel like Mom, having to get on them about packing it out. :bang:
 
I despise seeing trash on the ground on the job site. It came to the job in the truck it goes out the same way.
 
Ultimately, a lot of the responsibility for that kind of cleanup falls on the sale administrators. If they don't enforce the "clean logging" clauses in their contracts, it's natural for a slack outfit to take advantage of the situation. Time is, of course, money.

Yes, Some people are slobs and you can't shame them into picking up after themselves. Believe me I've tried. It takes threat of penalties to clean things up.

That being said that land the guy in the thread is talking about is private land. He can be thankfull there is public access and if the timber company (most likely Rayonier) isn't worried about a few jugs and hoses thrown in the burn piles he should get over it. The trash will probably be gone when they burn.
Additionally he likes the idea of turning it into a park and wilderness area but wants the roads for access that are built and kept up because of logging.
Next thing he will complain about is there are no vegan juice bars on the Kalalock, no coffee huts either.:angrysoapbox: Large mocha half caf with cinnamon please.
 
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You wanna talk about trash in the woods? I know where a D-8 sized Terex (the Lime Green type) cat rolled off a landing down into a canyon, and the logging company that owned it didn't want to do the work of pulling it out. So there it sits, growing blackberries. The hooker hiked down and removed all traceable numbers/identification.

The logging company made a wise choice. We tried a couple of those and had lousy luck with them. The only people that really liked them were the fuel dealer and the welder...they were always busy trying to keep those miserable machines going and in one piece. We took two of them on a six month trial, ran them for three months, parked them and went back to using Cats. The salesman said..."That's okay, nobody else liked them either and I'm quitting next week anyway."

Back on topic. Logging trash happens...but it's not that hard to control if you pick it up as you go along. An empty barrel in the back of the service truck or on the landing for the old hoses and filters keeps everything centralized and a occasional reminder to the crew to contain their personal trash usually works.

I remember an old pickup being disposed of in the woods. It had a hole in the block and they just pushed it over the bank. The side rod got really mad about..."Dammit, get that thing back up here and bury it. Don't you guys know how to do anything right?" We don't get to do stuff like that anymore.
 
In my neck of the woods the vast majority of logging occurs on private land. We always keep trash and debris picked up. Word of mouth gets jobs and nobody would recommend you if you left their property all junked up. I try to treat the property as I would my own (better actually!)

The old days are gone, no more diggin' a hole with the blade on a dozer or skidder and changing the oil in it.......Shame on you guys, and you know who you are!!!LOL

Tom
 
The old days are gone, no more diggin' a hole with the blade on a dozer or skidder and changing the oil in it.......Shame on you guys, and you know who you are!!!LOL

Tom

:laugh: That was a common practice for years and nobody thought much about it. Now, especially in California, they'd probably send you to jail for doing that.
 
I never worked where have left any garbage but I have been involved in many clean ups of transient campsites. The mess is unbelievable. The worst are all the used needles. Never seen loggers leave trash like hippies and transients. The Occupy protesters are worse than hippies.
 
no more diggin' a hole with the blade on a dozer or skidder and changing the oil in it

There was a time, not so long ago, when "keeping down the dust" was a legitimate "use" for used motor oil. "Controlling the weeds" worked, too.

The Occupy protesters are worse than hippies.

That's because they're spoiled rich kids, mostly.
 
I think it's just flat out lazy to leave your trash....anywhere.
I'm pretty strict about packing out your trash on my jobs. I can walk through where the cutters have been and find empty oil jugs laying on the ground. I'll send them back to get them on their own time, if I have to pick it up the next time I'm through there, they can start looking for a new job.
Juice bottles, and sandwich bags are some other things that chap my butt.
I was moving a pile of firewood with a Bobcat today, I started finding soda cans, cigarette packs, plastic bottles, and a bunch of other crap in my firewood pile. It's a good thing that guy quit a while back. :msp_mad:

Andy
 

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