Hiker distressed after making disturbing discovery deep in protected forest: 'It was infuriating'

A forager in Oregon encountered a distressing sight while in a state park and shared photos of it to Reddit's r/mildlyinfuriating community.

"Was out foraging in the nearby state forest in NW Oregon and came across a site where someone dumped a ton of their personal trash," wrote the original poster.

"Typically park rangers take that seriously and will work to bust the perpetrator." — Photo Credit: Reddit

The poster was able to find mail presumably addressed to the dumper in the mess. Reports to authorities were made, but local forestry managers and law enforcement did little with the information — at least as of the time of posting.

"It was infuriating enough that someone treated our beautiful state forest as their own personal landfill but I tried contacting the local forestry organisation responsible for the forest and the local county sheriff and got brushed off to make things even more infuriating."

This should not discourage anyone from reporting such an issue in the future, though, as many officials are eager to act on such reports to keep areas clean and impose easy fines.

Either way, waste does a lot of damage to an ecosystem. Plastic in particular breaks down into microplastics which are ingested by wildlife, affecting their health. Even when the plastic is in larger pieces, they can clog digestive tracts and pose other direct physical threats to animals. Other types of waste can leach forever chemicals into the soil, which pose health risks to wildlife and humans alike.

Watch now: Giant snails invading New York City?

Oregon has a state litter clean-up program and clear laws against illegal dumping, but it may not be working as efficiently as it could be. This is where organizations like Solve are able to step in. Solve puts together litter collection groups to help keep local parks clean.

Reddit commenters were equally frustrated by the mess left in the park.

"Just keep reporting and emailing the park rangers to do something about it. If that doesn't work contact a news organization to see if they can light a fire under law enforcement's asses," said one community member.

"Typically park rangers take that seriously and will work to bust the perpetrator. Then they'll fine them and most likely make them do community service like picking up trash."