S. Idahoans clear bullet-riddled trash

JEROME, Idaho – Volunteers have been scouring the north rim of the Snake River Canyon once a year for a decade picking up bullet-riddled trash.

Organizers say it’s paying off because they found less trash there this past weekend than usual.

“When we come out here and clean this up, the theory is there will be much less dumping,” David Freiberg, outdoor recreation planner for the Bureau of Land Management, told the Times-News of Twin Falls.

The Southern Idaho Off-Road Association has been leading the effort taking trash out of the area the past nine years with the help of the BLM.

About 70 people took part in Saturday’s cleanup effort, driving ATVs, off-road vehicles and front-loaders on undeveloped land east of U.S. Highway 93 and north of the Snake River Canyon. The BLM leased the land to Jerome County in 2005.

But county commissioners have not passed an ordinance that would close the area to shooting.

On Saturday, volunteers could hear people shooting bullets into junk that remained scattered on the rim.

“This area has been used traditionally as a shooting area forever,” Freiberg said.

“And shooting areas generally turn into dumping grounds.”

A refrigerator, couch and many other household items were taken out of the area, most shot full of bullet holes.

Officials said there were fewer truckloads to take out this year, but there remain plenty of small fragments of glass and metal, bullets, bits of rubber and shards of household or industrial trash.

Last year, 150 tires were dumped into a pit in the area.

Melinda Johnson of the Idaho State 4x4 Association noted that all that trash sits above the Eastern Snake Plane Aquifer, which provides drinking water for the area.

Besides junk, shooters also put holes in signs in the area.

“The only way they’ll stop shooting the signs is if you put an American flag on it,” said Susan Bachtold, one of the volunteers.