City: Pack your trash out of Tubbs Hill
Someone had converted floatation barrels into makeshift trash cans, but seeing as they were unofficially installed without the city's knowledge or approval, they quickly filled with trash and spilled over onto the beach. (Courtesy of Haylee Holmes)
Presumably intended to help alleviate the build-up of trash at Tubbs Hill, unofficial trash bins soon attracted graffiti, becoming even more of an eyesore than the trash. (Courtesy of Haylee Holmes)
The city of Coeur d’Alene is asking outdoor enthusiasts tending to their environmental footprints to be mindful of a new problem that has washed ashore on Tubbs Hill.
Flotation barrels have periodically emerged from the lake, a somewhat-common occurrence this time of year.
“We see these barrels come by, especially in the high spring,” Parks and Recreation director Bill Greenwood said. “So we clean them up when we see them.”
But these particular barrels evaded detection, were pulled to shore by passersby and became makeshift trash receptacles. Someone lined at least one of the barrels with a garbage bag, and the barrels began to fill.
It’s a problem frequent Tubbs Hill visitor Haylee Holmes of Coeur d’Alene first noticed when she saw the barrels on and around the peninsula.
“They just showed up,” Holmes said. “All three were evenly spaced apart, and the trash was just piled up everywhere.”
But while the city appreciates the thought, Greenwood said placing trash in the rogue barrels won’t ensure your garbage gets promptly removed. Those errant barrels aren’t emptied on any kind of regular schedule or rotation. They soon filled to the point of overflow with trash.
Furthermore, they've been tagged with graffiti, becoming as much of an unnatural blight on the habitat as the trash they carried.
“We’d just ask people to help out,” Greenwood said. “All it took was one person to throw something in the trash, and people mistook them for trash cans.”
The only regularly maintained trash receptacles can be found at the trailheads leading into Tubbs Hill. Volunteers have since removed the rogue barrels, but officials say the one-off incident could be repeated the next time flotation barrels make their way to Tubbs Hill’s shores.
“This is the first we’ve ever heard of someone doing this,” Greenwood said. “But we’re asking people to pack out what they pack in.”
