From the Fringe … Let's all leave no trace

Last Saturday night, I did something I am pretty proud of. I summited Mount Otis in exactly 28 minutes from my car to the bench at the top. I don’t know if this is a good time, a great time, or nothing to write home about, but for me, it was pretty fast.

However, that isn’t what I’m most proud of myself for on my quick trip up and down one of the more iconic peaks in the Bear Paw Mountains.

Instead, the pride I feel comes from the amount of trash I carried down with me on my descent.

Of course, pride isn’t the emotion I’m going to talk about here. Instead, the remainder of this column will be filled with condemnation and bewilderment.

The bewilderment stems from the fact that I am amazed that, in 2021, people still litter that much. I am astonished that, with everything we know about the environment, our ecosystem, about plastic, about trash, about our planet, that people still completely disregard all of that information and willingly choose to throw that stuff on the ground. And I’m particularly disturbed that people do it to our great outdoors, that people litter like that in our beautiful back country, and that, most likely, locals littered like that in one of our great recreational resources, the Bear Paw Mountains and Beaver Creek Park, which for us, is an amazing and beautiful playground right in our own backyard.

To say the least, what I saw as a I tried to speed summit Otis on Saturday evening was disappointing. Now, I did my part. I carried down what I could. But I didn’t have a backpack or a sack, and there were more plastic bottles along the trail and in the tall grasses than I could carry. I also picked up several candy bar wrappers and a ziplock bag.

Now to some, that may not sound like much trash, and, I guess if you’re comparing it to a landfill it isn’t. But shouldn’t we be of the mindset that one piece of litter on Mount Otis is one piece too many? I know that’s my mindset.

I know I often use this column to scold people, to stand on the moral high ground so to speak and look down. I don’t mean to be that way, but I know that’s how it comes across, and at the end of the day, that’s what column writing is about, and I’ll take the heat for speaking up on issues that I think need to be addressed.

On this issue, however, I don’t think I’m sitting on my high horse. I don’t really think there are two sides to this story. There’s only leaving your garbage on Mount Otis is bad. How can anyone see it any differently? So, there’s really no need to chastise any further. Littering is bad, whether it’s in the the great outdoors or in downtown Havre.

So come on, folks, let’s do better. Let’s take care of Mount Otis and Beaver Creek Park and all the things we have here to enjoy. We’re so lucky to have what we have here, and we need to respect it and take care of it. And it’s easy to do. We hikers call it “Leave No Trace.” It’s simple and easy, it just means don’t leave your trash behind when you’re recreating. And I personally don’t think that’s too much to ask.