The complexity of extracting and remediating the problem may be on a colossal scale
A speed boat, compete with bullet holes, sits abandoned in the middle of a redwood forest near Mt. Madonna County Park.
Photo courtesy Alex Rubin
By Alex Rubin
Alex Rubin
What does a motor boat, a refrigerator and a sofa have in common?
Sadly, the answer is not the punchline to a joke. These are real things found in Mount Madonna County Park’s unofficial dumpsite. I have lived a quarter of a century within a few hundred feet of one of the most scenic places in Santa Clara County. Mount Madonna Road has been the historic stage coach route from the Santa Clara Valley to the Pacific communities. The mountains were called La Sierra Azul by the Spanish explorers because of the bluish hue that this part of the Santa Cruz mountain range exudes.
The road is partly paved, but the upper mile, or so, is left as compact dirt. For those making their way to the summit by car, this stretch captures the magnificence of the biological transition between the oaks and madrones that are so iconic of the Santa Clara Valley. At a slightly higher elevation, California’s coastal redwood forests show why they are so iconic. The east facing mountainous divide is the watershed that feeds the creeks that flow to the San Francisco Bay. The seasonal waterfalls and natural springs feed the land, allowing for frogs, newts and banana slugs to maintain a safe haven. In short, this dirt road is teaming with life if one looks closely.
I used to jog up this road from my home up to the summit. I know every twist and turn, pothole and protruding root along the way. As I grew older, the back and knees told me to “knock it off.” I now do my fast power walks instead of running, but I still enjoy what this incredible place of geographical beauty has to offer. To anyone riding a bike or driving, all appears well. Aside from the occasional litterbug trash or vagrant campsite that we see every day in less remote areas, the place looks pristine. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If you walk or jog, just take a look over the edge of the road on the downhill side. This is nothing short of a horror story. Generations of abandoned pickup trucks, mattresses, toilet bowls and leaking batteries abound. Old and more recent deliveries of trash that create mosquito breeding grounds and introduce new toxic materials into the drinking water are easy to find. By my estimates, small trash items alone exceed 80 tons in just what is directly within the line of sight of the roadside pedestrian.
So, what is the fix? Can educating the public of the importance of not trashing the roads help? It is not enough. Perhaps I am a bit jaded on this front as this has been tried in many developing countries. I know from personal experience that education alone will fail. I know this, in practice, from my decades-long work in the neotropical rainforests of Central and South America. In short, education largely doesn’t work on its own for many reasons too long to discuss in this brief column. Education needs to be supplemented by law enforcement and, in some cases, physical barriers that discourage this behavior.
There are a few truths about the present situation. First, that even if we were to prevent things from getting worse (and dumping is only accelerating as I write this), there is still remediation. What can we do to fix the problem? This comes down to government and community groups banding together in unison to combat what is in effect a crime on Mount Madonna. A comprehensive plan and the resources to carry out that plan are desperately needed. The complexity of extracting and remediating the problem may be on a colossal scale. Cranes, winches and personnel to rappel down to haul up the junk is only part of the picture.
I invite other concerned residents to a guided tour of the less scenic view of this California treasure and its ongoing destruction. Would this move you?
Alex Rubin is an engineer, environmentalist, and resident of Mount Madonna. He wrote this column for Morgan Hill Life. He can be reached at [email protected].
