Financially-strapped Forest Service battles growing trash problem

[The Straight Story]

Financially-strapped Forest Service battles growing trash problem
By Moises D. Mendoza, Associated Press August 24, 2007

TONTO NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. (AP) -- Near a rock formation twisting into the Arizona sky, the desert floor has been torn up by off-road vehicles. A tattered VCR and a bullet-riddled washing machine further scar the landscape.

Tonto is one of many national forests that suffer environmental damage caused by thoughtless, even unscrupulous, visitors.

And the U.S. Forest Service doesn't have the cash or manpower to tackle the problem. The agency's spending this year has yet to be calculated, but its proposed budget represented a 2.5 percent drop in funding, said spokeswoman Angela Coleman.

Fighting wildfires eats up about 40 percent of the agency's budget, forcing cutbacks in other areas, said Cecilia Clavet, who researches Forest Service issues for the Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C.

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