Thousands of tons of garbage are piling up along the Riverbeds of the Eel River and creeks of Southern Humboldt. The Garbage is partially household garbage, illegally dumped to bypass paying dumping fees, but the majority of the trash is from homeless camps, scattered up and down the banks of the Eel River. The county is not cleaning the garbage up. The law enforcement is not issuing littering citations. Dumping fees are not being compensated.
The Eel River Clean Up Crew is cleaning up the garbage. Not the County, not the Environmental Agencies, just a small crew of concerned citizens. The Eel River Clean Up Crew picks up the garbage that lazy, uncaring human beings leave out to pollute the waters, kill the fish and infect our children. When we are not picking up the trash, we are on the phone, calling the local government offices, trying to just get one of them to help us.
Our community has donated over $30,000, but that money is running out. We need donations to cover the dumping fees, the gas it takes to travel around, Crew lunches and eventually, awareness efforts. We want our efforts to be recognized globally, so other communities will have the ability to clean their watersheds with out having to jump through all the hoops like we have. We cannot be the only place in the world where the homeless live and where uncaring citizens randomly dump their trash on the side of the road. And we know that we are not the only people bothered by a situation like this.
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A homeless camp above the
Ravencliff Summer Camp
Trash hidden in the trees
between Redway and Garberville
Drug paraphernalia at a camp
known as "Tweekers Flat"
Garbage littering the floor of
the Redwood National Forest |
