MATC caretakers bring down thousands of pounds of trash


 I met Ian last year while camping at the Horns Pond shelter area.  He single-handedly triggered an avalanche of volunteer work which cleaned up an old Fire Warden’s cabin site (of which I played one small part).   Over the years the place had been completely trashed out.

http://www.matc.org/assets/Resolved-Refuse-Removal-ATJourneys-MarApr2014.pdf

The MATC caretakers at Horns Pond in Maine also perform another critical duty – they compost human waste.   At altitude the temperature is too low and the soil is too thin for normal microbial activity to do it, so they backpack (literally) tons of bark chips up the mountain, mix it into giant tubs of waste, and compost it.   Anything non-biodegradable (soda cans, tampons, etc) they pick out and then pack down to town.

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