June 6,7,8, 2021
I stayed three nights in Cavitt’s Creek Park while exploring Tazewell, Bland and Smyth Counties in SW Virginia. The park grounds are well-maintained and beautiful, with a stocked lake for fishing, boating and swimming. I did not explore Cavitt’s Creek below the dam and I didn’t hike the trail around the park. The staff is very pleasant, and there is a good shower house. There are 8 pull-through sites with full hookups. There are also non-services sites up a steep gravel road in the woods.
I saw the same issues in this beautiful park as Kelly and I saw at Staunton Reservoir – trash. OK, warning! I am going into a rant. I don’t understand it. The game commission, the National Forests and county parks provide beautiful lakes, stocked with trout, with benches, walking trails and spectacular scenery. People come to fish where they are allowed to take six trout home. There is no sport to this fishing, but that’s another story. It’s the amazing brashness with which people leave trash! Drink a Coke. Leave it next to the bench. Tangle in your fishing line? Just leave it balled up next to the bench. Bring your lunch. Stuff it in the bag and leave it next to the lake, or worse, throw it into the lake. It just spoils the whole atmosphere. No one comes along and tells them to pick it up, or kicks them out of the park or God forbid, gives them a ticket.
Of course we see the same thing along highways that are littered with drink cans, bottles and McDonald’s bags. I don’t know what the answer is. Part of it may be our education system where where discipline is disregarded. Is Civics taught in schools today? There is a lot of talk about global warming, and cleaning the environment. How can we have any success with that when we can’t even discard our trash properly?
AMEN