Around 50 volunteers spent their Saturday helping the National Park Service clean up Six Mile Cove, a popular beach on Lake Mohave that needed a little extra care after a busy summer.
During National Public Lands Day, the volunteers removed around 1,000 pounds of glass and 12 cubic yards of trash and debris from the area.
“The clean-up made a visible difference and leaves the area looking better than ever,” said Samuel Durbin, park ranger Lake Mead National Recreation Area. “Visitors have been commenting how great the area looks. With a cleaner cove, the area’s natural beauty can shine.”
The cove was selected as an official “Hot Spot” by the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics. Hot Spot locations are popular and beautiful outdoor areas across the country that have experienced heavy recreational use and visitor-created impacts, including excessive trash, damage to vegetation, trail erosion, disturbance to wildlife and more.
Six Mile Cove, located just south of Searchlight, Nevada, is one of 19 locations selected in 2019.
“Leave No Trace identifies areas suffering from the severe impact of outdoor activities that can thrive again with Leave No Trace solutions,” said Cameron Larnerd, Leave No Trace traveling trainer. “We want to help land managers improve places and put them on the pathway to recovery.”
The traveling trainers visited Lake Mead National Recreation Area for a week, meeting with park employees, stakeholders and youth leaders to discuss Leave No Trace principles and ways the community could come together to protect all of the coves in the park.
“This week has been very successful,” said Nick Whites, Leave No Trace traveling trainer. “We have been able to look into educational solutions, working with both staff and visitors to help address impacts of visitor use at Six Mile Cove.”
The park now has local leaders and staff who are trained in the principles of Leave No Trace outdoor ethics. The team also developed an action plan to help take steps to keep the area clean and reduce visitor conflicts in the future. Two videos are also being produced to inform visitors about Leave No Trace principles that effect the Six Mile Cove area.
In addition to support from the dozens of volunteers and Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, the cleanup was made possible thanks to Get Outdoors Nevada (the official Lake Mead friends group) and the National Environmental Education Foundation.
To learn more about Leave No Trace and the seven principles, visit https://lnt.org/why/7-principles.
