It is little wonder sometimes why so many people leave eastern Kentucky for more populated and concrete locales. I recently came across one example of why I think that is, namely a distinct disregard for the land on which we live.

I know you may be thinking this is a trash coal mining argument, but before you thrown down the paper and begin cussing me, let me take this on a different route. What I’m actually talking about is the way so many people tend not to care about what our land looks like.

I returned from a trip to the Outer Banks a couple of weeks ago, and was impressed with the way those North Carolinians took care of the aesthetics of their land. They kept the road litter to a minimum. I even saw a young man spraying weeds along a sidewalk in Nags Head. And these aren’t big cities by any stretch of the imagination, but they do have one thing going for them: a want to keep the land looking neat.

That’s something that sometimes we do not have here in eastern Kentucky, though there are many people who work to the contrary.

Living here my whole life, I suppose I’m a bit used to the messes people often times make on the roadsides and especially on the back roads. Over the past few years, we’ve covered more than a few stories of local officials utilizing PRIDE grants to clean up illegal dumpsites. Other than a few stragglers, it seems most of those larger dumps are cleared. Clearing a few more of those dumps certainly wouldn’t hurt, but I wonder what difference it makes if people continue to dump their garbage on old back roads we could be utilizing for adventure tourism.

It was just a few weeks ago that I traveled up Hardburly, past the old camp houses to the gas road to check on a dump I’ve photographed for the past three years. Not that it’s a major dump, but it persists and people keep adding to it. Guess what was still there this year, and now with more trash strewn about?

Catching illegal dumpers won’t be an easy task, as it will take money for one thing. Revenues apportioned solely for enforcement of this nature don’t seem to be high on anyone’s priority list, and perhaps rightly so as many other issues need addressed. What could help really solve the problem is education. Area students should be educated as to why litter needs to be put into its place. Reforming how we look at littering and illegal dumping could be a good step forward. Declining to do anything more than what we’re doing is a big step backward.

This, frankly, is a problem we have because it’s a matter of out of sight, out of mind. Other than an occasional trip to the back roads, a lot of local residents don’t see the dumps and litter, and therefore don’t recognize the issue as a problem. Yesterday’s trash, though, will continue to be tomorrow’s problem if we don’t bother to clean it up.

Our region can be a travel destination, but it will take a concerned effort to clean it up and keep it that way. Underneath it all, that’s what we should be striving for. Regional tourism can be a good thing, but we’re going to have to work for it. Even the best laid plans for attracting visitors won’t amount to much if they have to put up with people’s household garbage strewn about at an elk watching station.

Visiting the Outer Banks, I was really struck by the togetherness of the place. In Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, which is about as far from an urban area as we are here in Kentucky, they apparently know that to not only attract people but keep them coming back, you have to have an attractive location which they have because of the Atlantic Ocean. Seeing the hills in eastern Kentucky, I think we have an attractive location as well, and plenty to offer. It’s not so much the getting people to come here, I think, but the challenge will be getting them to return. To say the least, we won’t get those return visits unless we change our mindset about how we treat our land. That should start with taking our garbage out to the curb, and not the back roads.