Massive May Day Clean Up
On May 1st, Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful orchestrated this year's Great Community Clean Up in which a total of 650 volunteers cleaned up 23 locations in the greater Reno-Sparks Area.
But there was one location which is unquestionably the worst illegal dumping and shooting area in Reno: the public lands accessible from Chimney Drive in Sun Valley. This job was taken on by the Big Guns: Hills Angels 4X4 Club, the Desert Pigs and RAD, and our powerful armies of highly effective volunteers. Approximately 150 incredible volunteers from our three organizations came together for a coordinated attack on this large area of endless debris from household dumping, target shooting, transient camps, abandoned cars, boats and RV's, and lots of other gross things which are ruining the trails of this area.
But there was one location which is unquestionably the worst illegal dumping and shooting area in Reno: the public lands accessible from Chimney Drive in Sun Valley. This job was taken on by the Big Guns: Hills Angels 4X4 Club, the Desert Pigs and RAD, and our powerful armies of highly effective volunteers. Approximately 150 incredible volunteers from our three organizations came together for a coordinated attack on this large area of endless debris from household dumping, target shooting, transient camps, abandoned cars, boats and RV's, and lots of other gross things which are ruining the trails of this area.
Leaders of Reno Area Dirt Riders, Hills Angels 4x4 Club and Desert Pigs with BLM Ranger Garrett Sarcinella
The Hills Angels and the Desert Pigs are undeniably two of the most admirable nonprofit organizations taking on illegal dumping, and we are proud to be partners and allies. The Desert Pigs, with multiple region-specific club chapters in Lyon and Washoe Counties, tackle a clean-up project literally every weekend. The Hills Angels is the organization which has adopted, legitimized and maintained the Hunter Lake trails and also frequently conducts major clean-ups around Reno.
What makes all of our organizations so powerful is the strength, motivation and passion of our volunteers. The dedication and attitude all of you bring are the very core of how we are able to make a meaningful impact. We cannot express the appreciation we have for each and every person who showed up to make a huge difference today. Our hearts were filled with gratitude to see so many tan #keeptrailsrad volunteer shirts out representing RAD!!
Collectively, everyone worked like a giant machine - no trash pile was too large, too complicated or too gross for our people to get out of the desert and into the dumpster. The strength in numbers filled seven 40-yard construction dumpsters in about 5 hours.
The amount of trash out here was beyond comprehension. The pictures may never do the job justice, but they capture the camaraderie of our people...
We also got some good airtime on Kolo 8 News.
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We cannot emphasize enough how big of an asset and friend that BLM Ranger Garrett Sarcinella is to the OHV Community and to the public lands as a whole. Due to limited Federal funding allocated to the recreation sector of the Department of the Interior, Garrett is the one and only Ranger assigned to 1.7 Million acres of BLM land spanning 5 counties in Nevada and part of California. To say that he does an exceptionally fine job with a disproportionately large assignment area is the understatement of the year.
Garrett treats illegal dumps in the desert like murder investigations. Without revealing his tactics, he hunts down and nails people in various locations every week, issues fines and makes them clean up what they dumped. |
The 280 yards of trash cleared by our volunteers today will help Garrett with his mission significantly as any new piles will stick out like a sore thumb, making it easier to track down the culprits.
We've always believed in taking care of and rewarding our volunteers. For this cleanup, the Hills Angels, RAD and Hobey's Casino foot the bill for lunch catered by BJ's Barbecue and lots of beverages. Special thanks to the Hills Angels for handling these logistics and serving all of our hard-working people.
We also owe a big thank you to all the volunteers who were local residents appreciative of this effort who came out to participate ... especially Joe, a neighbor of the land with his tractor who was absolutely instrumental in the afternoon. We made sure Joe left with a case of beer, a shirt and some donations for the replacement of his fuel filter which broke on site.
Today's effort was part of our much larger RAD Communities Project to assist the public with OHV registration and effectuate clean-up's on OHV trailheads, which is funded by a grant from the Nevada Off-Highway Vehicle Commission. For this project, the NV OHV Program (made possible by OHV registration dollars) funded RAD's new equipment trailer, custom tents and flags, and lots of tools and PPE for volunteers. Supporting this grant program by increasing registrations and cleaning up trailheads all contributes to the bigger picture: Keep Trails RAD.
Another successful RAD event in the books. If you missed this one, make sure you keep up with our calendar and make one of our next events! Soon we will be loading it up with trail work days for Peavine Maze Maintenance.