Spring is time to join hands and clean up

Frontiersman editorial board

There are so many signs of spring in the Valley. The air loses its edge, giving way to cool breezes and even a touch of warmth at times. The sky puts on its most dazzling shade of blue, buds begin to appear on branches and the entire Valley is covered with … garbage.

Whether it's a fact or not, this year's springtime crop of litter and debris seems to be of the bumper variety. Plastic, paper and building materials hang from tree branches along every roadside. Every gulley, stream and trail seems to be overflowing with somebody's cast-offs. There are almost as many excuses as pieces of litter, but none of them are any good.

We've all seen people driving around the Valley with trash blowing out of their pickup truck beds. We've all seen people flicking lit butts out of their vehicles, as if the world was their ashtray. We all know of neighbors who let trash pile up in their yards only to be blown hither and yon by the frequent Valley winds. Our community would be better off without people like that, but what community would have them?

Fortunately, there are a lot of good people in our community, too. Every year many of those people roll up their sleeves and donate their time to clean up our roadsides and neighborhoods. All through May and June these people will gather for a series of clean-up efforts that will restore the Valley to the place we're proud to call home. They'll begin in the Williwaw Subdivision near Wasilla and in Palmer on May 1, and finish in Petersville on June 26, rolling through every community in between along the way.

Sadly, as those good folks are picking up in one place, someone will be tossing out fast food wrappers, cigarettes and beer bottles someplace else.

This editorial is a plea to everyone in our community. Please find the time in your busy schedule to volunteer for at least one of the clean-up efforts. Please help put a proud face back on our home. This is also a plea to those who contribute to the problem. Please make the minimal effort to take care of your own trash. Please put your cigarette butts in your ashtray -- if you don't want them in your car, we sure don't want them on our roads. Please take a little pride in our community, or go someplace else.

In Tuesday's Frontiersman there will be an article about the clean-up efforts all over the Valley. We encourage you to read it and find at least one day to donate, or call the borough to find out how to host your own clean-up day with friends and neighbors. It's well worth the time and effort.