snowmobilers clean mountain minimal trash found

Fifty snowmobilers, a half-dozen Boy Scouts and two U.S. Forest Service district rangers, one from Idaho the other Montana, completed a garbage work detail on Mount Jefferson, near Island Park, Idaho, July 15.

Part of the Centennial Range, Mt. Jefferson has been a point of closure controversy for snowmobilers in Idaho and Montana the past several years, most notably its Hell Roaring area. The U.S. Forest Service has threatened to close the Montana side of the mountain to motorized winter recreation. One such complaint from the Forest Service, and backcountry hikers alike, was trash.

The Idaho State Snowmobile Association, with local Southeast Idaho snowmobile clubs, performance shops and dealerships, supported a cleanup day on the high-mountain peak.

After a day of ascending and descending the steep terrain around Mt. Jefferson and its famed Yahoo chute, the cleanup detail partially filled one pickup bed with many years of trash- the amount was minimal.

Those cleanup members who ride and were familiar with the area, convened to locations where snowmobiles are known to roll and crunch down the mountain leaving debris buried in the snow. The cleanup group gathered up parts of hoods and windshields -- the broken parts were minimal. Also, the cleanup group scoured areas where snowmobilers would stop and eat. Again, minimal trash.

Most notably though, were the amount of discarded items by hunters and backpackers who frequent the area. Campsites contained as much trash as those sites where a snowmobile was broken up or where snowmobilers chewed on a sandwich.

For the most part, the effort produced little trash, considering this was the first such effort since snowmobilers began traversing the Mt. Jefferson area over two decades ago.

Lastly, after looking at the terrain where snowmobiles take on the steep and deep, there was no evidence of ground surface marring from a churning track.