The Idaho National Guard, with the help of partners and local volunteers, held a trash cleanup event in the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area June 22.

“Events like this are really helpful to be able to clean up some of that debris, help lessen the impact on either military training or environmental conservation, and really it’s a win-win for both efforts,” said Lt. Col. Allan Whitehead of the Idaho National Guard.

The Idaho National Guard provided four industrial size dumpsters for the event, all of which were filled to the brim. Idaho National Army Guard Environmental Management Office officials estimated 10-12 cubic tons of trash and debris left behind by recreational shooters or dumped by visitors was removed from the area.

“It just looks poor on the landscape and then people see that and they say ‘Oh it’s okay to do this,’ and it reinforces that it’s okay to dump trash, when I think a lot of us know that it’s not,” said Steve Alsup, the President of the Birds of Prey NCA Partnership.