In light of September being public lands month, the Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WGFD) and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) partnered to host a Laramie Plains Lakes volunteer cleanup day on the last weekend of the month.
15 volunteers from Laramie and Cheyenne gathered at the Laramie regional office before spreading out amongst Laramie’s waters.
According to Jerry Cowles, a WFGD employee who attended the cleanup, the volunteer group managed to load three and a half pickup trucks worth of old fencing and trash on Saturday, Sept. 30th.
After tackling the bigger lakes: Hattie and Twin Buttes, the group split up to cover more public access areas.
Within four hours, the volunteers were able to clean Meeboer Lake, Gelatt Lake, Sodergreen Lake, and the Laramie River Monolith Ranch public access areas.
“A lot of what we found was camping trash,” Luke Weddle, a board member for the Wyoming BHA chapter said. “We also found barbecue grills, a little bit of ice fishing trash, and trash that fell off boats.”
“We had a huge diversity of ages, from 13 to 50 years old. It’s just good to see people volunteer for things, to spend their weekends that they’ve been looking forward to coming out and helping,” he continued.
Weddle also said that Wyoming Game and Fish Department and BHA are planning to partner on volunteer events more in the future, highlighting next summer as the primary time.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is involved in numerous volunteering events and lobbying year-round, within the state.
“We want to increase access, improve habitat, and also recruit new and educate new hunters and fishermen,” Weddle said. “We want to make a path for them to get back out on the land and enjoy our public lands.”
