For Immediate Release:  May 7, 2007
Contact: Mel Lloyd BLM 970-244-3097 

Clean-up kids celebrate Earth Day

CRAWFORD, Colo. — Staff from the Bureau of Land Management Uncompahgre Field Office partnered with the Cocker Kids Foundation and the Western Slope Environmental Resource Council to mark Earth Day on Saturday, April 21. The group of nearly 30 volunteers, many of them children from Joe and Pam Cocker’s nonprofit organization founded to support local children, spent the morning picking up everything from beer bottles to a 1,600-gallon plastic tank from the popular adobe badlands between Paonia and Crawford. About 30 cubic yards of trash, yard waste, and animal carcasses illegally dumped, or left behind by target shooters, was cleared from over 100 acres of public lands administered by the Uncompahgre Field Office.

“That Earth Day ethic is important to BLM all year long,” said Karen Tucker, manager of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. “These kids gained a true understanding of what we mean when we talk about public lands stewardship. They’ll take that home with them, which benefits public lands now as well as down the road.”

Volunteers contribute hundreds of hours annually to the BLM to maintain and sign trails, clean up trash, and conduct public outreach. This results in thousands of dollars of savings to U.S. taxpayers. The 8th annual “Dobie Clean-up” saved the BLM about $500.

“We can’t thank them enough for the work they did,” said Field Manager Barb Sharrow. “We appreciate their sacrificing a Saturday to come out and help us clean up trash left behind by others who are not as responsible.”

The BLM Uncompahgre Field Office and Gunnison Gorge NCA encompass nearly 960,000 acres of public lands. BLM staff frequently find household trash and yard refuse illegally dumped on public lands. Along with resource damage and visitor safety issues associated with illegal dumping, the cost for clean up and disposal of these discarded items is unfairly borne by the U.S. taxpayer. If you see anyone dumping trash on public lands, BLM encourages you to write down a license number, a description of the vehicle, the date, time and location, and report this information to the Uncompahgre Field Office, at (970) 240-5300. This increases BLM’s ability to track down those violators and issue citations. If caught, the penalty for this offense usually involves both a fine and many hours of community service cleaning up illegal dump sites on public lands. Please contact your county landfill and learn how you can dispose of unwanted waste responsibly. These are your public lands—BLM needs your help in protecting them.

-BLM-

Editor’s Note: Photos available upon request.