Part of the cleanup crew (photo by Buford Pruitt)
Have you ever gone for a nice pleasant walk only to find cigarette butts, beer cans, and trash along a road or trail.
Unfortunately, this happens way to often. No one likes trash. However, it seems many people are still ignorant enough to to dump it in the woods.
Ever since there have been people, there has been trash. Since we have progressed beyond food scrapes, bones, and shells–trash has been a problem. Throughout history people have just gotten trash away from their personal space (out of their pockets, out of their car, and out of the yard). In New York City trash used to be dumped off a platform into the East River. We now have recycling programs and proper ways to dump trash, so why doesn’t everybody use them? Why is it easier for people to haul garbage out in the woods, rather than dispose of it properly?
In this day and age many things have been invented to make our lives easier, such as the following:
- 1810 Tin Can.
- 1868 Plastic.
- 1892 Metal Caps on beer bottles.
- 1903 Corrugated cardboard.
- 1912 Cellophane.
- 1929 Aluminum Foil.
- 1935 Beer Can.
- 1941 Styrofoam.
- 1960 Plastic Cup.
- 1977 Soda Bottle.
All of these things and more were found around the Jennings Cave property on January 26th 2014. Thanks to Mike Gordon and Kitty Markley for organizing a cleanup up of the area, twenty people showed up to gather over 1,500 pounds of trash. The Dunnelin Waste Removal Department came by and removed the pile for free. We all thought it would be nice to simply return the garbage to the original owners.
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- A little trailer surfing.
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- This has accumulated in this spot in under a years timeframe.
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- Getting a birds eye view.
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- Sam emerges from the cave
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- James sees daylight
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- Brandon came all the way up from Tampa Florida to help.
When a piece of trash is thrown out of a window or dumped, it is dumped on someone’s property. Even though Jennings Cave does not have a house on it, it is still someone’s property. The Southeastern Cave Conservancy (SCCi) owns the entire Jennings Cave Preserve. It is time for everyone to take pride in their home, neighborhood, town, and planet– because trash dumping is unhealthy, unsightly, and just plain wrong.
It is nice to have Florida Cavers unite to help, clean, and support a cave owned by an organization that supports cavers.
Thanks to Mike and Kitty for organizing the event, thanks to John Harris who brought out the trailer, and:
BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED!
Couple of great photographs by ARYcave of the inside of Jennings: