Changing Times?

[hoppy]

Sorry to say that I am still a smoker. But I refuse to be a slob about it. I use the biggest ash tray on the planet for my butts. It's called the fire pit. The next camper to use my sight won't even realize the previous tenant was a smoker. I along with others dispise seeing buts litter up the site when I get there. They are placed in the fire pit by me for the first fire of the trip.

[griffsmom]

At 3 y/o, my DS has no shame about saying in his loud 3 y/o voice: "Mommy, why dat person frow dat paper on da ground?" To which I say, laughing inside all the while: "I don't why that person is littering, sweetie, but we don't do that; it's not nice" Usually, they pick it up.

[copcarguy]

Hey all!

A few of us here meet at Hickory Run SP in PA twice a year.  Every year the bathrooms get less and less clean.  In fact, this year we took a vote and probably won't return there just due to the disgusting bathrooms.  It is a shame, because the park is pretty nice and centrally located for most of the COTOC campers.  
 
The little sprinkle songs are cute...  I have a sign in my bathroom at work that reads:   "MY aim is to keep this bathroom clean, YOUR aim will help!"

[sure2rain]

I'm a regular camper at a SP in PA for the last 10 years and I too have noticed a steady decline in the "cleanliness" of the CG. It has increased with the steady increase of the casual, and I use this term loosely, "camper". On my last trip, the party in the campsite prior to our arrival must have thought that the fire-ring was a dumpster. I never saw such a mess. I reported it to the SP rangers but they said that there was nothing that they could do about it. It was also on this trip that I saw a group of younger adults breaking off several tree limbs for firewood. Again, I reported this to the rangers but was told unless they actually saw the act, they couldn't do anything about it even though you could see where the limbs were tore off. PA SP's are definitely going down hill.

[bearbait]

I think a large part of why the sites and things seem to be so littered is that the parks each have a lot less manpower.  One less cleaner for instance means an awful lot in the grand scheme of things,  the parks are being told to cut everything they can because the state seems to be headed for a dire straight financial situation.
 
Some are even being patrolled by a sherifs office now as they dont have enough rangers anymore.  So taking care of campers that are cutting down tree's and limbs had to pretty much drop way down the priority list.
 
It's a shame,  people just seem incappable of policing themselves anymore,  they seem to have that attitude of  "I paid,  thats someone elses job"
 
Yet they are the first to complain about tax increases,  if they would pick up after their campsites and make the cleaners jobs easier in the bath houses,  they wouldn't need a tax increase.  But they just don't see it that way.

[garym053]

I have a problem with being told that they (park officials) can't do anything about the previous tenants litter. They have records- send them a bill for clean-up! If they refuse to pay it, don't let them back. This is the computer age- everything is tracked! They give their name and wham, it comes up on the screen that these people are pigs!

Bearbait, I do agree that in some states cut backs are to blame for the uncleanliness, but in Massachusetts, which has some of the worst bathrooms of any state parks we've visited, there will be sometimes 5 or 6 people standing around the check in booth talking for hours. Maybe it's also lack of incentive. Vermont has the same budget woes as any other state, but in my opinion, the state parks are the best kept of any state's that we've camped at.

In fairness to all the parks employees, we been in parks where the people clean it and 15 minutes later campers have destroyed it! It does come down to people policing themselves and having the common courtesy to leave things AT LEAST as clean as they found them.

Oh well....

[sure2rain]

It doesn't necessarily take computers to keep track of CG abusers, I recently visited Little Pine SP in PA and they keep a 3 x 5 index card file with names of people that they closley supervise when they are camping at the CG. Computers would make it convenient for systemwide notification.
I know that the PA state employees, being one myself, are doing the best they can with the resources given to them. Immediately after the "cleaning crew" finished cleaning thet bath-houses , they were spotless. However, even with a full compliment, you would still get these knucklehead campers who don't care about how they leave the CG. They simply use it and abuse it.

[Camping Coxes]

I have a problem with being told that they (park officials) can't do anything about the previous tenants litter. They have records- send them a bill for clean-up! If they refuse to pay it, don't let them back. This is the computer age- everything is tracked!

In that same vein, most people (if not all) use a credit card to make their reservations.  That doesn't mean you can't pay cash once you get there at some places, but I know through ReserveAmerica it's credit cards.  So if the site is left in a really bad condition in the ranger's opinion, you get a one night's fee to cover clean up.  This is part of your camping agreement.  If that happens a few times, maybe the slob-campers will change their tune about cleaning up.