Trail Trash
Illegal dumping costly to clean and difficult to enforce
A lone Dr Pepper can in a patch of colorful forget-me-nots and buttercups at the start of Blueberry Trail, off Engineers Cutoff Road, cannot begin to prepare one for what lies ahead.
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After hiking about 75 yards from the trail head, through a gantlet of western hemlock and devil's club, you are greeted by a discarded tire off the side of the trail. This is directly followed by an automobile bumper, discarded gas cans, plastic oil bottles, a toilet and the remains of a trailer that looks as if it was deposited on Blueberry Trail during a tornado. And it only gets worse.
After traversing about 50 yards through a relatively clean section, a massive dump consisting of chairs, appliances, broken toys, a couch, motors, a washer and dryer, and at least three vehicles comes into sight. The Blueberry Trail, partly owned by the city and the Federal Aviation Administration, is an example of the illegal dumping around Juneau that officials say is costly to clean up and difficult to maintain trash free.
"It's definitely a problem throughout the city," said Dale Gosnell, trail ranger for the city. "People don't want to pay to go to the dump apparently, so things get dumped in remote places where people aren't looking. So it is a concern."
George Schaaf, executive director of the nonprofit organization Trail Mix, said overall there is "remarkably very little trash" on most trails around town but not on all of them.
"There are some trails that for a variety of reasons get a lot more litter than others," he said.
This year, Trail Mix has seen an increase in litter on the Dan Moller Trail in Douglas, Schaaf said, but nothing compared to the problematic Montana Creek Trail in the Mendenhall Valley.
"Right now, you have people driving, literally, sofas and refrigerators and stuff, and dumping them right in the creek and on the road there."
Ron Marvin, director of the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, said the U.S. Forest Service also deals with illegal dumping and garbage on hiking trails on an annual basis. At times people will leave garbage around the visitor center but the remote areas in the Tongass National Forest often get hit harder, he said.
"Some of the more remote trailheads, when you go out the road, the dumping is a real big problem," Marvin said. "There's sometimes been - when our people go out in the spring - they'll haul a couple thousand pounds of refrigerators, washers and dryers and other assorted junk just to get them cleaned up."
"Basically anywhere there is nobody looking, often you'll find illicit dumping," Gosnell said. "It's unfortunate but it's definitely an ongoing problem."
The city does not have a lot or resources to devote to the problem because it is costly to remove the garbage from remote areas, he said. Often it takes the help of volunteers to remove and haul the garbage away, Gosnell said.
Bob Dilley, a community service officer with the Juneau Police Department, said it is often difficult to hold the perpetrators accountable unless they can find names or contact information in the garbage or if people witness the offense and report it.
"We definitely spend time and resources on it," he said. "When we see it we'll take our time and go through the garbage and see if we can find a name."
If caught, people are subject to a littering ticket with a fine of $200 for the first offense, $250 for the second within two years and $300 for the third.
Dilley said he did fine a man $200 for dismantling the camper on the Blueberry Trail prior to this year. He also noted that the fine leveled for the dismantled trailer is the same as would be written to someone tossing a soda can in a ditch.
Taking the garbage to the landfill would likely be cheaper, Dilley said, adding that it costs him about $25 to dump a load from his short-bed pickup truck.
"It's pretty cheap, as opposed to going out and getting caught and having to pay a $200 fine," he said.
Schaaf said litter on trails seems to be more incidental than anything, with food wrappers and water bottles sporadically found along the trail system.
"On the trails, I think one of the bigger issues continues to be dog waste," he said. "In the summertime you just see an increase of general litter."
Schaaf met with several stakeholders on Thursday to address the illegal dumping situation going on at Montana Creek and to talk about potential solutions.
"We're trying to come up with a way to resolve the dumping problem that's going on out there," he said. "One of the things that we're looking at is getting some stepped-up enforcement."
A big part of the issue is getting people to take personal responsibility for their junk, Schaaf said.
"It's a very frustrating problem, particularly for the people that have to clean it up," Marvin said.
• Contact reporter Eric Morrison at 523-2269 or eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.