I will let the photos tell the story, (and a good story it is), but first, here’s a couple thoughts I’d like to inject…
For one; there were close to, or over, 100 volunteers in attendance whom represented all forms of recreation groups. Yet only 6 of us went to clean up the large Arrowhead target shooting pit (and only 3 of us were shooters). That is not a very good representation from the shooting community! Especially when it’s an ‘All Recreation Group Event’.
Another thought is the year round ‘look’ that is on target shooters. And it never eases up. As you drive through a forest, any old forest, the places you see trashed are primarily target shooting sites. While there is a lot of illegal dumping happening in many forests lately, most of the trash you will see is located at a shooting site and has our ‘bullet hole’ signature on it. This really gives gun owners another ‘bad look’. We have more than our share of ‘bad looks’ in today’s world without adding more to it.
I have always had high respect for gun owners, hunters, sportsmen/women and target shooters. I had always believed in their love of the outdoors and the stewardship they lived by. Times are changing and I’d like to bring that back.
So, if you want to shine a good light on gun owners and represent our kind respect for the great outdoors, attend a cleanup event. Better yet, just go out and do one on your own. Let the forest agency know you did it (they rarely hear from shooters that we cleaned up a shooting site). And don’t be afraid to tell others!
That’s my mini-rant for the day. Enjoy the story!
Bill
Here’s the Pick Up The Burn story: (follow each picture in their order)
Company’s coming!
Lets make them feel welcome!
Donate what you can to our General Operating Fund!
Bill, it was my first clean up event and am happy to finally get involved with this essential service at the local shooting sites. Unfortunately I decided to take the L1610 L1510 route to arrowhead pit, should have taken the Livingston Road route, ended up getting myself turned around and finally ended up joining a group of five cars of people cleaning up another shooting site.
Sorry to hear that only six people actually made it to the arrowhead pit cleanup site and I had a couple of questions.
How many of the people that gathered at the Jones Creek parking lot that morning were Trash No Land
people ?
And also , while I know that you and TNL are busy with already scheduled cleanup events, perhaps another Arrowhead Pit cleanup could be organized as a TNL stand alone event.
Thank you Bill for all the energy you personally put into this very much needed effort !
As for me, at the next cleanup to avoid wandering aimlessly through the forest I will take notice of the fact that you had included a goggle maps QR code on the map you handed out 👍
I wondered what happened to you! Ha. It’s all good!
As for the number of volunteers that came due to TNL, I don’t have a way to measure that. DNR had their sign in sheet and some people will put the group they represent, but not all do. I used to do a second sign in sheet just for TNL, but that was too much of a hassle for people to write all that down a 2nd time.
A stand alone Trash No Land event just might have to happen, but won’t be until late summer. I noticed a couple other shooting sites still need some attention up there.
Thanks for checking in, Jay! It was great to see you again!
Bill