Vehicle batteries discarded years ago had disintegrated in the brush below the trestle. They were pulled out and hauled away. Lead plates and battery acid add to the pollution of the watershed. Smaller batteries such as AA or D-types were also found. Even small batteries are toxic. 

Small Part of Garbage Collected

     Seen here are just a few of the dozens of garbage bags filled with litter that were hauled out of Boxcar on Wednesday. In the background is the graffiti-decorated base of the concrete pillar that supports the railroad trestle. Some of the litter was in plain sight, while much more was found in the brush. The most common items were beer cans and broken bottles. 

The Crew Takes a Much Needed Break

     The weather was cool - perfect for cleanup day. After a couple of hours of picking up cans, bottles, metal, paper and plastic items, the crew relaxed on the rocks before lunch. One of the hazards posed by the canyon is the practice by some young risk-takers of jumping off from ledges, high on the rock wall at left rear, into the deep waters of the canyon.

The Mayor Brought Lunch

     To show his appreciation, Mayor Tom Smallwood made sure everyone on the cleanup crew had plenty of food after a productive morning's work. He brought hot dogs, fried chicken, potato salad and ice-cold water for the hungry, thirsty workers. 

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"For many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we think little about it beyond this point of contact. We have lost a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports."

~Sandra Postel

 "We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do."

  ~Barbara Ward

"The most unhappy thing about conservation is that it is never permanent. If we save a priceless woodland today, it is threatened from another quarter tomorrow."

~Marjory Stoneman Douglas

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."

~John Ruskin

"In America today you can murder land for private profit.  You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops."

~Paul Brooks

"To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."

~Theodore Roosevelt