O.M.G. The trash! The litter!

The Santa Clara River Trail is over 8 miles long and runs from Valencia to Canyon Country. Yesterday I walked on the Valencia side, this afternoon I did the Canyon Country side, which is closer to my home. I tried to take fewer photos, especially of trash, because I was using my phone instead of my camera and more importantly, seeing the trash was just depressing. Somehow I couldn’t resist taking them. Perhaps I’ve been a steward of the environment for too long. Perhaps this is how I cope with not understanding why people litter or throw away their garbage like it has no short or long-term impacts.

I know there are plenty of areas that are much more polluted, but this is where I walked today and the pollution, while minimal was an affront to me. It may not be that this area is any more polluted than what I saw yesterday, but that the garbage is more obvious because there are a lot more open spaces and it was a lot brighter because I walked earlier in the day. There are plenty of trash bins along the trail so the folks who litter do so because they choose to. I’m not writing an extensive post, just showing some of the more remarkable, head-scratching, eyebrow-raising things I saw along a 1.5 mile stretch of the trail.

The Affront to my Senses