Our shorelines shouldn’t be a dump

Dave DesMarais, Henderson

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 | 2:04 a.m.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area is a wonderful part of living in the Las Vegas Valley, but the trash that litters the shoreline of Lake Mead and the Colorado River is not.

Like other volunteers who collect and dispose of other people’s trash at Lake Mead and the Colorado River below the dam, my wife and I are disgusted by the amount of trash continually found there. I cannot comprehend why people cannot take their own trash out with them.

On an almost weekly basis, we put our kayaks in at various spots on the lake and river and invariably end up picking up bag upon bag of bottles, cans, beer cases, plastic bags, used medical syringes, coolers, diapers, tangled fishing line, etc., along the shorelines. Broken glass bottles present one of the biggest problems, because we cannot pick up this debris regularly since we use plastic bags for our collections.

With lake levels rising, this debris will be what visitors walk on and will be injured on. Discarded fishing lines and tackle are a terrible threat to the wildlife, as they become entangled in it or swallow it and therefore die. We were at the government wash area a week ago Sunday and within 4 1/2 hours had collected 12 large garbage bags of debris.

On behalf of the park employees and the many volunteers who work to keep our lake clean, I implore the boaters, anglers, sunbathers and all those who use Lake Mead to take the time to clean up after themselves for the protection of the lake, its wildlife and our and future generations.

Trash bins can be found throughout the recreation area, trash bags will be available at park entry points and at most boat launch areas. Be responsible and do your part.