Dear Editor,

Trees. They are the cause for oxygen and life on Earth. Most of us
have a portion of woodlands in our “backyard” and it is full of trash. We
need to pick up our trash, because it causes global warming, ruins the
environment, and hurts animals. We need to stop before it’s too late!
Over the years, global warming has been showing up quite often, and
has become a huge problem. The trash in our woods isn’t helping either.
When our garbage is stuck in the wooded area, it is stuck there and most of
it decomposes. However, if a fire were to start, then the melting plastic and
latex would release black fumes to the air and would trap the carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere, causing the global warming effect. According to
The Northcoast Environmental Center “While new waste incineration
technologies are being promoted as ‘green and clean,’ they are not the
best option for generating energy and have significant GHG emissions.”
Our environment is a precious thing that we need to protect. Our
garbage can be recycled, or moved by the West Milford Waste
Management. Yet, we still find plastic cups and planks of wood thrown in
the depths of trees. When our lakes sweep them away, they get caught in
our streams, and could potentially corrupt our water or stop the natural flow
from streams. The plants could be damaged by the trash too. If a piece of
trash was thrown on the floor, it would be crushed by the massive amounts
of pressure. The natural waterfalls and landforms might be damaged with
all of the extra weight added onto it.
Animals can be seriously damaged from the trash found in our
woods. For example, a deer might get its head stuck in a plastic trash bag,
or cardboard box. The smaller animals have it harder. The bigger the trash,
the more of a chance that they might get stuck under a water bottle, or hurt
by glass ones! There have been many bear sightings in our region, which
include digging through our trash. If we leave our trash in the woods, the
bears could rip through it looking for food and spread the garbage around
the woods, potentially hurting smaller animals. The animal website peta
states “ Birds frequently get their beaks wrapped or wings tangled up in
discarded fishing line[s]. Hooks can be swallowed or become embedded in
bird’s skin or beaks.”
This has become a bigger problem overtime, but some people do not
know what they can do to help solve it. You can go to
https://www.reference.com/science/pollution-environment-
fae587b4b0587f59 for helping this problem or www.peta.org/features/litter-
kills-animals/. With all of these options of what we can do, we can make our
woods better than they ever were before. Our woods needed to be cleaned
after having this much trash built up in them, and the time to act is now!