Watcha doin in the desert?

This weekend I went camping with friends in the desert just outside Phoenix, AZ. The trip was inspired by the drunken idea that it would “be cool” to scuba dive for treasure at the bottom of Saguaro Lake. The brown murky lake is home to Phoenicians with boats in tow in pursuit of fun on the water. Needless to say, not a premiere scuba diving location, but we loaded up all of our gear and piled into the car and headed for Mother Nature’s desert oasis in search of some fresh air and treasure. The eight of us filled our tanks at least three times, fired over 150 bullets and managed to produce four large bags of trash over the course of two days. It’s odd that it takes so much stuff to live off the land. I decided to look into this a little more.

The desert attracts tourists paying high prices for a quick hummer tour up steep hill climbs, thrill seeking four-wheelers and avid ATV riders zipping around hair pin turns in desert washes. They all leave something behind because the desert is littered with trash. Whether it be a crevasse with metal bullet casing strewn about or an old campsite with plastic baggies and old beer bottles. Illegal immigrants often times take most of the blame for deserts filled with trash but even in a desert more than 150 miles north of the border, passersby will find a trashy desert. This high traffic desert playground is losing its luster. But, there are some people trying to do something about it, unfortunately it's just not enough.

Arizona Clean and Beautiful is a non-profit, volunteer driven organization that works to clean up Arizona. They do this not only by cleaning the littered deserts, but also through research and education. In the past the group has organized events to pick up trash in Arizona. They cleaned an area close to Saguaro Lake where 436 volunteers showed up to clean littered with diapers, old bath tubs, plastic bags and glass bottles. They collected 21 tons of litter in one day! You can help too…

-volunteer
-report litterbugs: 1-877-3-litter (Greater Arizona) 602-712-4683 (Metro Phoenix Area)
-clean-up after yourself
-leave your campsite cleaner than when you found it



In addition to volunteer groups cleaning the area, the Tonto National Forest also offers volunteer opportunities for anyone interested in helping. Regardless of who is doing the littering, there are people willing to help fix the problem.