Volunteers pick up trash from ranch, public land
Posted: Feb 27, 2011 4:11 PM CST
Updated: Feb 27, 2011 4:11 PM CST

Video: Volunteers collect trash left behind by immigrants
0:37

Reporter: Sheryl Kornman

ARIVACA, Ariz. (KGUN9-TV) - Nearly 50 volunteers picked up enough trash to fill 200 trash bags Saturday with personal items, plastic bottles and backpacks left on the desert floor near I-19 and Arivaca by illegal immigrants.

Some of the trash was removed from the Marley and Sopori ranches, said Mark Hart, spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. He took part in the cleanup.

Hart said the items left behind cause "adverse environmental impacts to ranchlands and the desert environment."

The volunteers were organized under the auspices of Hunters Who Care - hunters, sportsmen, guides and hunting clubs who help clean up and restore the desert "in support of landowners near the border" who are affected by the trash dumping.

Pima County's Natural Resources Department and its Parks and Recreation Department also helped conduct the cleanup, Hart said. Floyd White of Game and Fish's Landowner Relations Program also was part of the effort.

Hart said thousands of immigrants pass through the area each year and dump their trash when they're picked up by human smugglers who drive them to the next smuggling point of contact in Arizona.

http://www.kgun9.com/global/story.asp?s=14151031