On a rainy Saturday in late February, a stellar group of volunteers made their way to the crest of the Santa Ynez Mountains to clean up trash around the Arroyo Burro Trailhead. In just a few short hours, the group had removed 450 pounds of trash left behind by illegal target shooting.
The trailhead area has been used as an unpermitted shooting site for several years. Unfortunately, this has resulted in an accumulation in broken glass, pieces of metal, fragments of electronics, and lead bullets.
The volunteers primarily worked on removing lead bullets and fragments as well as other microtrash that forms when various types of targets are shot. Broken bottles, cans, scrap metal, and pieces of electronic devices were common across the site.
By midday, the group had removed 25 pounds of lead, over 200 pounds of other microtrash, and about 200 pounds of larger target debris!
Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped us with this project. We will be going back to the site to remove remaining trash later this year, so be on the lookout for opportunities to volunteer.
See more photos from the cleanup below:
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About Bryant Baker
Bryant is the Director of Conservation & Research for Los Padres ForestWatch, where he manages scientific, technical, and volunteer projects. He is also a naturalist and photographer, spending most of his free time hiking the rugged public lands of the Central Coast region with his dog.
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