Editor:

I have hiked and biked many trails and roads in northern Humboldt and have noticed lately, much to my dismay and frankly disgust, how trashy our environment has become. Plastic bags, disposable and recyclable containers, PPE, fast food cups, and those plastic or glass hard alcohol bottles are everywhere.

This seemingly infinite assortment of intentionally and unintentionally discarded junk just keeps piling up and most of us do not seem at all concerned. But, I for one am, actually, quite disturbed and embarrassed by it. What does it imply when a community of humans casually defiles their environment and then does almost nothing to clean it up? This is an especially important question since we live by the Pacific Ocean. A lot of this detritus blows out to sea to poison and kill its creatures. Wake up Humboldt Citizens! We and the rest of our species are destroying Mother Earth in many ways. If we do not correct our transgressions, we and many other species will cease to survive.

In response to this, I propose that governmental and private groups organize, collectively and cooperatively, weekly volunteer clean-up projects all over the county. Sure, every now and then we hear about a beach clean-up. That's great, but the problem has gotten far too immense for occasional efforts to have any significant impact. We need weekly, year-round volunteer clean-up events and we need them now!

Martin Smukler, McKinleyville