Bob Haase Another Can Of Worms

Illegal Dumping of Trash

 

I will never forget leaving the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds after helping with the Winnebagoland Conservation Alliance Sportsman Rummage Sale a couple years ago.  I was following a girl in a black car and all of a sudden an empty plastic pop bottle came flying out her window.  As she was driving she was cleaning out her car and throwing papers, plastic and paper bags, and a variety of other things out the window.  She continued to throw things out her window all the way to Shopko where she parked her car and went inside.   I wrote her license number down and regret to this day not calling the police and turning her in.  The only reason that I didn’t was that all the evidence was scattered from the Fairgrounds to Shopko with no proof that she threw it out.   The only thing I could think of is “What a Slob”!!!

Things have gotten worse during the last two years.  The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is having a real problem with people dumping larger items at DNR parking areas and other state owned lands.  A few weeks ago they found the hull of a fiberglass boat dumped off with the serial numbers ground off.  I was in the Oshkosh DNR Office a few days ago when Fisheries Manager Kendall Kamke showed me a picture of someone’s living room furniture including the sofa and chairs that someone had just dumped on state property.  In the last issue of Wisconsin Outdoor News Dean Bortz showed pictures of a toilet and other items that were dumped in the woods where they were hunting. 

In case people don’t know it… the cost of picking these items up and dumping them in the correct place is paid for by your hunting and fishing license fee money.  I think it is time to increase the penalty for dumping trash illegally because right now the fine is not large enough to convince people to stop doing it.  Maybe the money collected when someone is caught could be used to offset these expenses rather than using hunting and fishing license fee money.  Maybe we need to install numbers of trail cameras not only at likely dumping areas but also points along the way so that people would have no idea where the cameras are hidden.   Maybe all of us need to be more alert to the slobs that are dumping this trash and start taking down license plate numbers.

I have a friend that lives just outside of Montello and he is constantly finding old tires, television sets, and other items dumped on his property along the road bordering his property.  He ends up picking them up and has to pay to dispose of them.  The problem has been getting worse and I don’t think it will get better until we find a way of convincing people to stop.  Maybe they should be required to spend a minimum of 50 hours picking up trash along the roadways if they are caught in addition to their fine. 

You may not think this is a problem but if you woke up and found an old TV or some old tires sitting in your lawn you might think differently.  Maybe if they knew more people like you were watching for them they might decide differently before dumping their trash illegally. 

Bob Haase is the host of “Outdoors Thursday” heard Thursday mornings at 9:10 a.m. on News-Talk 1450 KFIZ.