Adams State students Betsy Stovicek, Ryan Goldsworthy, Tyler Christensen and Liz Brownlow chat with U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar while an overflowing dumpster draws attention yo their work,

MANASSA — A surprise early morning appearance and pep talk from United States Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made the day for about 20 volunteers who showed up to help clean up a Bureau of Land Management administered area about five miles east and eight miles south of Manassa.

National Public Lands Day, Saturday, Sept. 26, attracted around 120,000 volunteers nationwide for cleanups such as the one undertaken near the Wilderness Study Area (WSA)in the Piñon Hills, according to Salazar.

The WSA is supposed to be "only affected by the forces of nature, thus providing a parcel of land that offers outstanding opportunities for solitude, as well as primitive recreation activities such as hiking, hunting, fishing, and horseback riding," material provided by the San Luis Valley Public Lands Center relates.

"Regrettably, not everyone understands the value and importance of the WSA, and this land has become a dumping ground for refuse. Dumping trash on these grounds is a combined threat to the area's natural habitat as well as its native wildlife," emphasizes Volunteer Program Coordinator Robert Santoro in urging participation.

Salazar recognized one of the participants, Jose Gurule Jr., a Centauri High School senior, who was a United States Senate page from September 2008 to the end of January this year.

Two other Centauri High students took a full day with Gurule in helping with the somewhat messy cleanup. Protective gloves supplied certainly helped, but the overall size of the group was an aid, with the presence of tires, clothing, remains of auto parts, decaying wooden pallets and broken glass bottles, plastic containers, and the remains of bullets on the ground in astounding quantities. A trash dumpster similar to what one might see next to a construction site was filled over the brim.

Originally, the plan was to do clean-up in two different areas, but the size of the first spot targeted and the sheer amount of dumped material there for pickup limited the day's task to the first.

The site's size was about two miles east-west and one mile north-south. A great deal of time was initially spent fishing small pieces of broken beer bottles out of the ground, but volunteer coordinator Santoro, the college professors and volunteer Doug Simon redirected the group to clean up the larger pieces of garbage which were present in large numbers, but not in enormous quantities like the broken glass.

Simon is a Bureau of Land Management employee, but his work was strictly free and heartfelt.





For the complete article see the 10-01-2009 issue.

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