Savage Junk

Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News

March 25, 2008 11:59 am

— GRANTSVILLE - The Savage River State Forest is not, repeat not, according to Larry Maxim, a 54,000-acre landfill site where people can dispose of refrigerators, tires, building materials and even hog heads.
As supervisor of the forest and an employee there since 1990, Maxim said illegal dumping is worse than ever.
"The Savage River State Forest is the jewel of the entire Maryland state forest system," Maxim said on Monday. "We need to manage the forest, but cleaning up dumps is taking up way too much of our time."
Scott Campbell, a forest technician who ends up wearing the work gloves and tossing debris onto the back of a truck, said that a week ago, he, along with fellow trash tosser Michael Johnson, spent every hour of every work day removing junk from the public lands.
"Westernport Road is the worst," Campbell said. "But there are other places too, like Big Run, East Shale Road, New Germany Road and Blackhawk School Road."
The forest employees are not talking about a hunter or hiker or fisherman who discards a pop bottle here or a candy wrapper there.
"We're finding places where somebody has obviously remodeled a home and thrown all the old doors, insulation, shingles, siding and everything else onto the forest. We're not talking everything but the kitchen sink. We're talking kitchen sinks, too. Several of them," Maxim said.
The craziest thing Campbell ever found? "It was a full-sized chest freezer over on Dry Run Road. It was still full of deer meat."
On Blackhawk School Road, about a week ago, the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service was called to investigate a bear being struck by a vehicle and killed.
"When our people got there, they found it was a bunch of hog heads somebody had dumped," Wildlife Biologist Clarissa Harris said.
"It was heads and it was hides," Maxim said. "The hides all had blue paint on them, which is how they mark them at the auction when they sell a bunch of hogs in a single lot."
Actually, a number of whole hogs have been tossed off bridges that span Elk Lick and Poplar Run. "I guess somebody finds some dead hogs in their barn and says 'Let's just go toss them in the forest,' " Maxim said.
Maxim is incredulous that anybody would desecrate the beautiful forest in the state's high country. He is surprised as well that average citizens are not more upset about it.
"There was tremendous public outcry when windmills were proposed for the public land and we hear a lot of complaining when we close gates," Maxim said. "Where is even a portion of that outrage when it comes to illegal dumping?"
Jackie Boylan, veteran office employee at the forest, said citizens who see illegal dumping can help by getting a license number and calling authorities. Citizens have a choice of numbers: (800) 825-PARK, (800) 628-9944 or (301) 777-7771, the latter being Maryland Natural Resources Police at Town Hill.
NRP was able to trace one recent dump back to its dumper. "They made him pick it all back up," Maxim said.
NRP Sgt. Ken Turner said the severity of the charge depends upon the circumstance.
"It we are talking about mom, pop and the kids leaving some trash at a picnic area, then that's a fine of $125 if they choose to pay it without going to court. If we're talking about a commercial operation dumping a truckload of material, the fine can go up to $25,000 and there can be jail time up to five years," Turner said.
Staffing on the forest makes the cleanup problem more acute.
"When I started working here we had 15 full-time employees and 15 on contract," Maxim said. "Those numbers are now four and four. It's amazing that we get as much done as we do. If we can stop picking up trash, we can have our people do things like mark our boundaries with new yellow paint. We have 350 miles of boundary line. If you painted that in a straight line, your last brush stroke would be in Toronto, Canada."
One of the least vandalized places on the forest is the public shooting range, according to Roger Rounds, maintenance chief.
"The shooters love that range and they keep their eyes and ears open so that it stays nice," he said.
Tires appear to be the trash item of choice on the forest. A group of 50 to 60 was found in one spot near the top of Big Run.
"They go to that spot where it drops off steep from the road and give them a shove," said Johnson.
Maxim said he would welcome some sort of cooperative effort - that would involve the forest and perhaps the Maryland Department of the Environment or the State Highway Administration - to provide a place where the public could jettison tires legally.
For now, discarded items are brought back to forest headquarters and removed by a contractor.
Maxim said he loves springtime on the forest when the redbuds and dogwoods blossom and the turkey gobblers sound off. But, he knows too that warmer weather will likely bring more illegal dumping.
"We like to keep as many side roads as possible open for recreation - whether it is hiking, hunting, trapping - but those are the kinds of places where people are dumping. Maybe we'll have to rethink that policy," he said.
Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.

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