A reminder to keep it clean!

A great comment from Oleg, that deserves its own post:

Just a friendly note to fellow fisherman, boaters, and other park visitors of the reservoir.

How dare are you leave behind litter like empty glass and plastic bottles, soda and beer cans, used plastic lures and fishing line on the bank and in the water?

Are you not going to keep coming back to this place again and again?
Are you assuming that the park staff is meant to pick up after you because they collect reservoir usage fees?
What else makes you leave your garbage behind?!

Dear Administration,
Apparently there is an ongoing issue that park users feel to much relaxed about not taking back with them their used items and simply throw it away in the water or leave on it the spot.

Please raise this issue and possibly post warning signs along the park access point about users responsibility for picking up their trash.

I assume there are state-wide fines that can be imposed on people who leave litter in the parks. I little reminder for general awareness should help.

Please don’t litter. If you see litterbugs, report them to park staff. At a Loudoun Water meeting, Chairman Rocca mentioned when he was working with scouts, he asked them to each bring back at least two pieces of litter each time they went out on a hike. If you see trash, pick it up and throw it away. I’ve pulled several hanfulls of broken glass from the launch area myself along with other trash.

Keep the reservoir beautiful.

11 thoughts on “A reminder to keep it clean!”

  1. To Oleg and Admin:

    My apologies. I was out boating with my toddler daughter recently, and she threw an object over the side of our vessel that sank in an area that was too deep for us to retrieve it safely. The object was secured, but my daughter had managed to get it loose. We do not intentionally litter and would have gladly retrieved it, had it been possible. When someone is watching my daughter, I can come assist with clean-up. I am willing to pay whatever fine might be assessed.

    I did not appreciate the tone of Oleg’s comment. It came across to me as if the assumption was that we felt entitled to litter. I did not dare to leave trash behind. In fact, I felt really bad about it. Our littering was an accident.

    I have only been a few times. Are there trash receptacles at the boat launch parking area? I cannot recall. I can respect a “trash-free” / “leave no trace” area; but some folks in our area may not be all that familiar with this concept, especially if they are new to this area. So, while I do agree that maintaining the natural beauty is desirable, I would appreciate if we could work together, rather than make assumptions about people without knowing the backstory.

    1. Life happens, people drop things. If you feel bad about whatever went overboard, go pick up a few other pieces of trash you can find. There are trash receptacles in the parking area for certain. Even if there weren’t, why on earth would anyone think it would be ok to litter?

    2. To LG,

      I appreciate your comment and I can read a lot of self-awareness and responsibility for the environment from your comment. Yes, sometimes things do slip off our hands and cannot be retrieved eventually – this happens to many of us in very different life situations; nobody would blame anyone for such accidents.

      My original post was an attempt raise littering issue as a general issue in the park as well as any park and environment.

      When I fished along the bank of the reservoir I had to walk a lot through the trails and tried many spots on the bank for fishing. There is currently no single spot that is clean – garbage is right there, left sitting on the bank. Moreover – this is for the fellow fishermen – every time I come back to same fishing spot I find more and more fishing tackle leftovers, like empty worm cans, broken used lures, and a lot of fishing line left on the ground right on the fishing spots.

      So, let’s remind everyone that this environment is ours to use for life, so follow zero foot print concept.

  2. On relevant note, check out this short video from a well-known bass fisherman Flukemaster:
    “Don’t throw your soft plastics in the water”
    https://youtu.be/MMNw5euMGzs

    It’s not good for our fisheries if you throw worn out soft plastics in the water. Toss them in the trash or recycle them.
    You can also sell them to http://ecolurecompany.mysimplestore.com/

    We all just follow simple environment sharing ethics and keep learning what is good for us and for coming generations.

  3. I think that instead of reporting these litterbugs to the park staff you could put up trash bins around the place, so people have a place to put their trash instead of throwing it on the ground. Also they should be trash bins that animals can’t get into. Then if the problem is still happening around the peaceful area they should be able to tell the park staff about these crimes.

  4. What is the real status for this summer? I hear both sides that it will be CLOSED and then I hear it will be OPEN.

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