Is this wheeling?
- Thread starter macleanflood
- Start date
It's so frustrating to know that there are people who think it's alright to just dump stuff off in the woods. Idiots. 
OP
Yup. And it's not a simple problem. It's easy and convenient to blame the homeless or the tweakers...and most certainly they contribute...but every dump site tells a different story.
And in the end the Forest Service, BLM and Corps of Engineers are left with huge messes. Often with complicated hazardous chemicals, sewage and asbestos.
And often their go to solution is closure.
ODOT just put up gates on a little stretch of old 58 folks used to park next to the freeway to access some prime fishing sites after years and years of abandoned cars, campers and encampments.
And you've got the closures in Moab.
Rory from Trailmater summed it up well...you've got that one percent of people out there who are fucking things up for the rest of us
I can't solve the worlds problems. But I can help get folks organized to clean up these messes and perhaps that will keep our public lands accessible.
I'd rather be working with these agencies to build some awesome wheeling trails out of logging roads they're decommissioning...picking up trash perhaps is a gateway to building trust with our local agencies.
-Mac
And in the end the Forest Service, BLM and Corps of Engineers are left with huge messes. Often with complicated hazardous chemicals, sewage and asbestos.
And often their go to solution is closure.
ODOT just put up gates on a little stretch of old 58 folks used to park next to the freeway to access some prime fishing sites after years and years of abandoned cars, campers and encampments.
And you've got the closures in Moab.
Rory from Trailmater summed it up well...you've got that one percent of people out there who are fucking things up for the rest of us
I can't solve the worlds problems. But I can help get folks organized to clean up these messes and perhaps that will keep our public lands accessible.
I'd rather be working with these agencies to build some awesome wheeling trails out of logging roads they're decommissioning...picking up trash perhaps is a gateway to building trust with our local agencies.
-Mac
My 4x4 Club just had a meeting with tread lightly and they are attacking the problem the same way. Work with and educate the .gov...Help pay for signage, and provide lots of labor for cleanup efforts. The second arm is educating the people who use the trails. It seems effective, and they are growing like crazy.
And tires...Oh how I hate tires left out in the woods. We inhereted propery, an old farm in Michigan's Upper Pennisula. We've taken nearly a 100 tires off that property (and found another pile last time we were up). Some of them are obviously old and that is the way old farmers did it. I get that...don't like it, but get it. A lot of them are modern tires though, that people have just dumped there because they were too cheap to dispose of them properly. That is infuriating.
How are you getting rid of them? I know it isn't cheap...
And tires...Oh how I hate tires left out in the woods. We inhereted propery, an old farm in Michigan's Upper Pennisula. We've taken nearly a 100 tires off that property (and found another pile last time we were up). Some of them are obviously old and that is the way old farmers did it. I get that...don't like it, but get it. A lot of them are modern tires though, that people have just dumped there because they were too cheap to dispose of them properly. That is infuriating.
How are you getting rid of them? I know it isn't cheap...
Wheeling with a purpose.
I spent 40 years in town planning and land development; now retired. For over half of it I managed anywhere from 5 to 7,500 ac. of land, a lot of it vacant. Early on my company vehicle was a Jeep XJ and I got to (had to but loved it) "explore" farms, valleys, woodlots, water courses, etc.
You would not believe the number of issues we had to deal with. Lots of garbage, building materials, abandoned vehicles and some things that didn't make sense at all. Dead animals were common and I actually got to save a few that would have died for sure. Many hunting and fishing issues and a few beaver dams we had to blow up. Some of it like grow-ops with nonsensical booby traps was funny and some of it like dealing with homeless squatters very sad. Far and away the worst I saw was a roughly 100 square feet of cattle carcasses dumped on one of our properties. We worked with Provincial Conservation Officers on that and they were great. They "got their man" very quickly. Unfortunately we got to clean up the mess.
It was all part of my main job which was to develop land ... and it sure made work interesting!
I spent 40 years in town planning and land development; now retired. For over half of it I managed anywhere from 5 to 7,500 ac. of land, a lot of it vacant. Early on my company vehicle was a Jeep XJ and I got to (had to but loved it) "explore" farms, valleys, woodlots, water courses, etc.
You would not believe the number of issues we had to deal with. Lots of garbage, building materials, abandoned vehicles and some things that didn't make sense at all. Dead animals were common and I actually got to save a few that would have died for sure. Many hunting and fishing issues and a few beaver dams we had to blow up. Some of it like grow-ops with nonsensical booby traps was funny and some of it like dealing with homeless squatters very sad. Far and away the worst I saw was a roughly 100 square feet of cattle carcasses dumped on one of our properties. We worked with Provincial Conservation Officers on that and they were great. They "got their man" very quickly. Unfortunately we got to clean up the mess.
It was all part of my main job which was to develop land ... and it sure made work interesting!
OP
Mr. B's tires in Springfield OR. Anywhere from $5 for the little ones to $20 for big ones on rim and $50 for split rims.
I want a tire machine so I can quickly remove rims, pay less for the tires...by the way the agencies reimburse us for the cost...and scrap the rims to make a little money (like paying for the tire machine.)
Hoping I can grow my YT channel and do trail advocacy/trash pickups full time.
I've got the watch time but I'm having a rough time convincing people to subscribe. Probably because I'm not asking for their subscription or doing any YT bullshit.
-Mac
OP
Wheeling with a purpose.
It sure made work interesting!
Seen a lot of stuff too and also why I'm trying to document some of it on YouTube.
You've got the tweakers... usually see lots of needles, crack pipes... craziest thing we found was a 55 gallon drum of methylated urine. Guess it's better the second time around. They're usually the ones who steal copper so you'll find lots of wire insulation.
Unhoused folks fall into two categories... folks who are unemployed and those who are...lot of folks living in the woods close to town working because either rent is too high, or they've got a criminal record or bankruptcy and nobody will rent to them. Typically a lot of kids toys. Lots of donated food and clothes. You can see the situation getting worse as the RV falls apart...crazy roof patches, tarps... Oregon winter rain is relentless.
You've got folks dumping in the woods because that's what their families did long before there were organized dumps. We've found some of these...I found a 1985 drivers license.
Contractors...we just cleaned up 6.3 tons of shingles...to make just a little more money.
Party crowd...couch, lot of beer cabs and bottles. Condoms. I'll include the gamblers in this crowd... abandoned vehicles, usually wheeled until broken, stripped and shot full of holes...my video Caddy Wampus documents some of this. We did one event with the gamblers...local chapter...they barely picked anything up, camped out and we spent another day cleaning up the campsite mess they left
Clueless campers... legitimately cleaned their trash up and left it neatly bagged by the road for the magic trash fairy...we're lucky if we find them quickly cause usually the animals drag them everywhere looking for the food.
Asshole campers who buy a whole bunch of camping gear from Walmart...set it all up and camp out and then ride off leaving all of it.
Hunters...lots of bones.
Illegal wood harvesting...cedar is in big demand... they're going after old growth fallen logs.
Scrappers/chop shop...got one of those right now up Patterson Mountain Road. Guessing they're the ones who might have been up Winberry. We forced them to move by "stealing" all their scrap metal. They left an eight mile section of road with dozens of piles of stripped RVs. Cops have zero interest in these folks. You know what they are doing but it's hard to catch them in the act. And even if you do either nobody bothers to prosecute or they don't show up for court and the judge just dismisses the charges. So usually they just get chased out only to make a huge mess in a different spot.
Shooters. Haul TVs and other stuff and blow it all up.
Probably missed something.
-Mac
If the land is being rendered inaccessible to the public, maybe we shouldn’t refer to it as “public land?”
