I'm Back!

Hello! I just spent the past week in a National Forest. I've been working 14 hour days, so I haven't been able to hug that many trees. It's OK, though, because in Arizona, a lot of the trees are rather prickly. Why does everything in Arizona have to be so thorny?

In the course of my work, I wave been able to see deer, fox, and a ton of birds. But do you know what I've seen the most of? TRASH. Yup, tons of refuse. Mostly aluminum cans and water bottles. Not only are people throwing trash into our National Forests, they're throwing RECYCLABLE trash into our National Forests.

It irks me. Do people think that the good people who work for the Forest Service really have the resources to pick up trash? (They seem pretty busy to me already.) I wanted to pick up a ton of the trash, but due to an unfortunate run-in with a cactus, I spent one of my clean-up days trying to pull cactus needles out of my arm. But I did manage to spend a few hours cleaning up, and I was appalled at the ridiculous amount of plastic I gathered. Plastic bags snagged in trees. Water bottles tossed into bushes. I actually had to stop collecting trash because I filled all of the trash bags I had brought with me. It was very sad.

Next time you find yourself in a National Forest, pick up and recycle that bottle you find on the ground, OK?