Crook County man clears trash others leave behind

If you live in Central Oregon, it’s hard not to appreciate the scenery of the area. But sometimes, keeping it that way requires a little effort because of other people’s carelessness.

Off the side of Alfalfa Road between Bend and Prineville, you can see what might appear to be an abandoned shed, or maybe an old wreck. Get closer and you’ll find it’s actually a discarded RV top. It’s in one of several places around the area that people have been using as dump sites.

Crook County resident Jeff Robertson, like many Central Oregonians, gets upset about such unthinking actions, and appreciates a clean environment.

“My dad’s a wildlife biologist by trade,” he said Friday. “So whenever we were out, which was often, my dad was always, ‘Hey, let’s pick up trash.'”

But people are leaving or dumping trash all around the area surrounding his home east of Bend.

Robertson said he’s tried to recruit help from the Bureau of Land Management to solve the problem.

“Since I’ve lived in the community here for six years, I’ve contacted the BLM on many occasions, with no results,” he said.

NewsChannel 21 reached out to the BLM and was told they don’t have enough employees or time to hit all of the spots where unthinking or uncaring people dump trash.

So it’s up to people like Robertson to keep the area clean.

“What I’ve done is, I’ve taken a group of neighbors in the local area, and what we do is, we do our own cleanup,” he said.

Robertson has assembled a group of like-minded volunteers to tackle some problem areas Saturday and NewsChannel21’s Jessie Foster plans to be there for a follow-up report.