01/03/2007: "Get Tough On Litters; Now & In The Future"

When I arrived on San Juan Island six years ago, I was shocked and surprised to see all the trash along the roads and beaches of the area. I could not imagine how people could litter one of the most beautiful locations in this country. Somehow, I naively felt the residents and visitors to these wonderful islands would be above such practices. How wrong I was!

According to local news reports the problem has grown worse, not better, over the years since my wife and I arrived. This point was highlighted to me late last summer.

A neighbor of mine on Eagle Cove, Kris Timmons, recruited two other neighbors (a mother with grown children and a retired gentleman) to help her haul some huge Styrofoam dock float material off the county beach. The same gentleman helped her load her pickup with the Styrofoam and she drove it to the dump.

The Styrofoam had been on the Eagle Cove County Beach long enough for hundreds of its pellets to litter the beach, and it was obvious beach-goers had been breaking apart the Styrofoam without any regards for the effects of their actions. The beach had been very busy for several weeks and hundreds of healthy, young, vigorous beach-goers obviously had made no effort to help clean up the mess. It took three older and less physically able but concerned and responsible citizens to do the job.

With this incident fresh on my mine, a few days later I stopped by Jackson Beach for a few minutes with my dogs. Sitting on one of the picnic tables just a few feet from a trash barrel were a number of beer bottles along with scattered bottle caps. Additionally, there were several soft drink containers on the ground in the area and an assortment of snack food packaging. There was more trash discarded in another area, as well as a dumped couch near the area where the boaters park their cars and trailers. I picked up what I could and dumped it in a trash can. I wish this was not the norm at locations like South Beach and Jackson Beach, but far too often it is.

I know this article is simply a way for me to vent. I do not suppose for a minute that those who litter are the types who read columns like this, or for that matter could even identify a trash container, let alone deposit their garbage in one. The reality of the situation is that the concerned citizens of the islands will continue to have to pick up the litter of the selfish, littering slobs who live and visit here. The most I can hope for is that there is a special place in the hereafter where those who litter, like Dickens' character Marley, will be made to eternally wander the trash dumps of the world draped in a cloak of smelly garbage and refuse.

By John Maya
San Juan Island