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Show Garbage along river run Dear Mr. Wallis: Over the July 24th weekend, a couple of friends and I took some youth from Missouri down the river from the Dam to Little Hole. We stopped about one mile down so everyone could have a drink of water. It was unbelievable. There was so much garbage on the beach that it looked like a dump. We went around and picked up pop and beer cans, candy bar wrappings wrap-pings and about twenty cigarette butts. It was the same story when we stopped about three miles down from that. We collected about seventeen' cans. Some of these were in the water. Also, there are many cans out in the middle of the river. My father has run commercial river trips for years and has always taught his kids that we must take care of the river if we want it around for many years to come. Not only is it our livelihood, but also a thing of beauty. I am only glad that so far the "garbage dump" has stayed above the Browns Park-Lodore Canyon area. I hope it stays there and doesn't move down. Or better yet, is cleaned up altogether. I'd also like to say that it isn't that hard to take the garbage out with you and deposit it in the trash cans at Little Hole. We have to haul out three and four days worth of garbage plus ashes from fires on our commercial trips. You'd think that hauling a few cans six miles would not be very hard. Rhink it boils down to the fact that most people just don't care. It's really too bad because this is a beautiful area and the people of this Basin should be proud we have such things to see. Also, another thing to consider, (as corny as it may sound) the animals and fish have to live with what you leave behind. Hopefully, others have seen the same thing I have and are concerned about it. The best thing to do is to tell someone about it. Tell the offenders. Show them their garbage. Start caring about what we have and pass the word along to visitors. Sincerely, WENDY HATCH |