Hiker shares photo of upsetting discovery at national forest: 'Seems about right'

An avid hiker was addressing litter in stride, but their testimony shows the challenges of changing human behavior that often treats nature like it's their personal dumpster.

They posted their experiences to the r/DeTrashed subreddit and sarcastically titled a photo of trash: "Beautiful sights at my local National Forests."

They noted in their post that the pictured trash was some they'd picked up a few months ago. This was a common experience at the undisclosed national forest.

"There are endangered plants and animals, songbirds everywhere, fresh air, beautiful lakes, and oh yes an invasive species known as Common Litterbug," they cheekily described.

While they were doing their best to play a part in the cleanup, the problem was more than they could handle. That's because they said commercial dumping of larger items, such as tires and sofas, was rampant in the area.

Lest you think this was a cost-saving move by offenders, the original poster mentioned their county provides multiple options for responsible waste disposal for free. 

Since some people don't partake in that, unfortunately, they pointed out the forest service has to spend valuable time and resources dealing with the mess. All in all, this makes a frustrating situation for the OP and others. 

The optics of what should be a beautiful time out of nature is disrupted by what should be a preventable problem of both common littering and commercial dumping. The OP clearly had a good sense of humor about it, nonetheless.

Commenters relayed their appreciation for how they picked up litter when they could, while lamenting the state of things.

"Seems about right for human behavior," one user wrote.

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"You are the best kind of human!" a commenter said.

"Thank you all for the support, it is very inspiring!" the OP responded. "We only have this one planet, so I'm just doing my small part to help take good care of it."

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