healtheocean
By Heal the Ocean (HTO)
HTO Field Advisor Harry Rabin coordinated a massive cleanup of an abandoned homeless encampment in Los Padres National Forest that took place on two days, June 13 and 23, 2022. A group of community volunteers who live in the surrounding area worked with Harry and Andrew Velikanje of Earthcomb to remove 6.81 tons of trash within the forest.
Trash collected included everything from mattresses, appliances, and furniture to large amounts of cardboard, plastics, and wood pieces. Volunteers filled two large trash roll-off dumpsters in just two days. Thank you, MarBorg Industries, for quickly delivering the roll-offs to the site to help us clean up this source of environmental harm.
And big thanks to Harry and Andrew – and the Los Padres community members for working so hard to keep our environment clean and safe!
Before the cleanup
The site after 6.81 tons of trash was removed. (Photos by Harry Rabin, On the Wave Production_
Need to start a “Heal The Lands”.
It’s great to see these “camps” cleaned up. We need to help the people who inhabited them clean up by as well by starting them on treatment programs for drug addiction. It’s a long and challenging path, but I believe that we could successfully transition many of these poor souls back to a healthy and productive life in recovery.
There are many “Grow Camps” that are in our Los Padres backcountry, especially near the New Cuyama area… Most are supported by Mexican cartels that use gnarly chemicals and pesticides to keep deer and other wildlife out of the grows as well as dangerous fertilizers that are not sold here in the U.S. The pesticides are so poisonous, that rangers, hikers and those cleaning up the damage caused, need to be vigilant about decontaminating their boots and clothing…
We need to acknowledge that bike paths in California are always going to be prime homeless encampments. Every single bike path by a river in California is infested with encampments filled with trash, needles human waste. And it isn’t limited to California. Austin Texas has massive problem. But just go on YouTube and search for LA or Orange County river homeless camps and you’ll see. They lead to fires and toxic pollution of the freshwater that is used for wells and our food supply. And yes it ultimately can drain to the sea. Thank you to the non profit for Doug. This but it really put to be done by the County and the state who encourages more and more homeless to come to California vs most other states.
@KKSYV It’s a sad state of affairs in this country, particularly in California, when we need more bike paths and access to bike only roads, that they have become “free rein” for the vagrants and drug abusers… I just came back from Western Europe where bike paths are the norm and heavily used- ZERO vagrants and drug addicts. They have FORCED rehab… We can thank the ACLU for much of our vagrant issues.
Santa Barbara County has a massive workforce and should clean up all the homeless camps without delay. This shouldn’t be left for volunteer groups to do. What do they spend our tax dollars on?
Hotel rooms for vagrants?