Public Hunting Grounds - Trails marked w/ Trash?

[Rwc]

I will start this post by saying, I am getting older and a few things that I used to never even give a second glance at now eats at me a little.

For Example……..I am fortunate enough to have 3 pretty good public hunting grounds 15, 30 and 35 minutes from my house. I normally start scouting one or two of the public grounds in June. The last couple years I have noticed more and more people marking trails with what I can only assume is trash they carry in. The most popular being plastic grocery sacks hung on over hanging limbs. I also can’t get over the amount of plastic water bottles and or drink cans pushed on limbs.

I understand that some are not as fortunate as others when it comes to being able to navigate through timber or brush in low light conditions. But even a person that is direction illiterate and half scared of the dark can mark a trail using falling limbs or rocks.

At the very least, if you are convinced you would get lost and never found if you did not have some type of highly visible trash markers, down load one of the many hunting/navigational apps that are offered and become efficient with it.

The amount of trash left on public grounds continues to be a huge problem with few picking up and lots bringing in.

So as you start your scouting/hunting on public grounds this year, remember what you bring in needs to leave with you.

Hope this did not read as a “Get Off My Lawn” post. I wrote it as a call of help to start a never ending problem regarding public lands including boat launches.

God Bless and have a good one.

Rwc

[Trumpkin]

I've had to cut down a forest worth of flagging tape in one spit. Literally every ten yards they had flagged another tree. If you're that bad at navigating in the woods, take up a different hobby.

[DUKFVR]

That is one thing that makes me blow a gasket. Trashy people. We hunt public alot. Always have trash bags to pick up after the worthless pos slobs.
I even go as far as picking up plastic wads in ponds floating on the edge. Just hate to see any kind of trash in the outdoors.

[ThisLadyHunts]

A very well stated public service announcement, sir. And very timely, too.

I traveled fairly regularly back when I was working and, in visiting other states, one of the biggest differences remarkable to Texas was the lack of trash and litter (and graffiti, and bad smells) as compared to the other states I visited. The contrast was often striking and also a great source of pride for me, personally. Twenty, thirty years ago, you’d never see trash on the highway. Now, I see it everywhere and it’s heartbreaking to me that there is so little collective pride in our state and its environment.

There has definitely been a shift in attitude in the last thirty years. I can’t help but wonder if letting the “Don’t Mess with Texas” ad campaign lapse was a significant predictor of this attitudinal shift. This, and I don’t think we have the same pride in our homes as we used to; and we’re passing this lack of pride along to our kids. Either way, the scattered refuse along our highways and the trash left behind on our public lands greatly tarnishes our ability to prideful of our state and, ultimately, our ability to be Proud Texans.

Thanks, OP for starting this conversation. It is long overdue.

[BarW]

In my travels in other states especially in the west, Texans have a bad reputation for among other things not respecting nature. Two examples being tearing up land with ATV's and leaving trash. litter is an epidemic in Texas.

[BarBBar]

When I drew Chaparral WMA many years ago, it seemed like every tree and bush in my unit had trail markers of all colors in all directions. It was very thick, and easy to get turned around there, so I understand the desire to leave bread crumbs to find your way. What bugs me is folks too lazy to find their own spots who leave their cigarette butts in "mine" after I have done the work. There are more good friendly and helpful guys than bad, so I try to keep a positive attitude.

[Rwc]

Okay, so for the sake of discussion; if you are convinced you need some type of marking to make it to and from your tree/area on public, then why can one not pull his/her markers after there last sit of the hunt?

Rwc

[Texas Grown]

I gotta agree RWC.

[justletmein]

We primarily hunt Amistad and it blows me away walking around you'll come up on a huge "boma" blind made with cut down sticks and tree limbs (which you're not supposed to cut) or just dead wood piled up in a circle. Literally every single time I see this you can walk up and check how recently it's been used by looking at how fresh the empty water bottles and gatorade bottles are. You'll either find a pile of old faded bottles in there or a pile of fresh or sometimes a combination of both. It's wild, makes no sense, the bottles are heavier to carry in full than they'd be to carry out. I used to swipe them all and pack them out but then figured it might be better off to write on them with sharpies smart *** comments so now I do that. Don't even get me started on the flagging tape, oh em gee.

[Razorback01]

It’s not just hunters, take a trip up the Nolan river above Whitney during the white bass run and look at all the trash.

[Rwc]

Just thinking, if us "non take a dump in our living room" type of people carried in one15 gallon trash bag (small) twice a year and filled it up with trash and carried it out, would we put a dent in the trash, or would the trash out run the effort?

Rwc

[Kirby86]

Okay, so for the sake of discussion; if you are convinced you need some type of marking to make it to and from your tree/area on public, then why can one not pull his/her markers after there last sit of the hunt?

Rwc

I actually use the little reflective tacks that come with a clip if I'm hunting a NWR that forbids marking trails. At least that way I can pull it on the way out.
On the other hand, this is why I prefer navigation apps like OnX, etc. I don't even want others to know where I'm hunting. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

Most of the places are getting worse, but the absolute WORST I've seen is on the Bosque side of Lake Whitney.

Theres one unit where they have taken orange spray paint and chainsaws and cut entirely new trails through the cedar patches. Then they spray painted orange arrows for which direction to go, etc, ON TOP OF reflective tape every 50 feet. When I walked through it and looked back at the tracking on OnX maps it looked like I was drunk.

They also have entire cases of water randomly spread out all over the place. Heaven forbid they buy a nalgene or invest in a cantene.

So I totally agree with you. And it can feel like a "get off my lawn" thing, but its even getting to the point that treestands, blinds, etc are part of the trash. I can't tell you how many times I see a brand new ground blind setup right next to the old one that got trashed from being left out all season the year prior.

[Dirty Kev]

Kirby, pretty sure I know exactly where you're talking about.

At a different spot I followed a few hundred yards of 2' strips of flagging tape placed every 20 ft down a trail. When they ran out of flagging tape, they just dropped the plastic packages that the tape came in on the ground, walmart sack too, wish I could have found the receipt. Few yards after that was a cedar that they cut a blind into, and 11 empty busch cans at the bottom (I can only assume they saved a full one for the walk out). Your comment about the OnX track making it look like you were drunk could be because the people who made these trails very well could have been!

I peeled off every piece of flagging tape that I could find on my way back. Maybe some people need to be lost in the woods in the dark.

[WItoTX]

Agreed. The amount of flagging tape I've pulled out of SHNF, I could flag most construction sites in Houston with.

I suspect these same folks then wonder why private land owners don't want to let folks on their land to hunt hogs.

[LukeDuke]

This is a pet peeve of mine also.

It's lazy woodsmanship.

On the other hand, it clues me in to where someone is hunting which I appreciate. I like to know where others are hunting without them knowing my spot, so I can't complain too much.