||| FROM MISHA RAUCHWERGER |||
Another glorious Mother’s day in Moran State Park; this time my mother and father were here with us for a special visit that coincided with her 80th birthday. We went for a walk around Mountain Lake. Within minutes, I had four bags of dog poop (from other people’s dogs) in my hands that had been left by unconscious visitors. Why would anybody leave a plastic bag full of crap in a place they come to experience the beauty of Nature?
We couldn’t figure it out. Do they think that there is a janitor that comes and cleans up after them? Do they not know plastic doesn’t decompose, but simply breaks down into microplastics in the soil? If they can get the poo into a bag, why can’t they carry it out? It’s already in a bag, for God’s sake! Would a “$1000 fine for leaving shit in a bag on the trail” sign help? or maybe: “would you leave a bag of crap in your kitchen?”
We soon got over the anger, and quickly were reveling in the beauty. “Check out the Morel over here!” “Look at this Coral Mushroom!” It was spectacular. and then, I spotted a tiny spec of color, a closer inspection revealed a Calypso Orchid (Calypso Bulbosa). I pulled out my phone to take a photo, and flung myself onto the forest floor to get a macro shot of this beauty. And then realization that the squishy feeling on my hand, and all over my phone, was not just moss in front of the orchid, but something left by someone’s dog, this time not in a bag. Really? Yes, indeed. This time I would have rather they left it in plastic.
Any ideas for signs in the park for unconscious dog owners should be sent to: Moran State Park, 3572 Olga Road, Olga, WA 98279
People leave the plastic bags with poop on the side of the trail as they are headed out and then collect them on the way back, so they don’t have to hike around with poop in their hand all day. Leave them there. I promise you, at the end of the day, all the bags will be picked up, usually by the same people that left them there. Standard trail hiking protocol for hikers with dogs. If I am hiking, at the end of the day or on the way back, I will sometimes pick up the bags of those that may have been missed, but it is the exception not the rule.