Public lands are designated for outdoor enjoyment and recreation, not for garbage disposal. Yet one man in Oregon failed to grasp the difference — and he paid the price for his negligence.
Oregon's KLCC covered the incident, which occurred on BLM land near Willamette National Forest. There, a man intentionally set a fire to destroy the evidence of his previous day's illegal dumping of garbage.
Fortunately, KLCC reported, fire crews from the Oregon Department of Forestry were alerted, and they quickly extinguished the half-acre blaze, preventing it from spreading — a particularly likely scenario given the area's high fire risk in the summer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"It would have been a major issue, especially for anybody who might have been up in that area because there's only one ingress, egress out of there," KLCC quoted BLM Chief Ranger Damian Hayes. "They would have been trapped up there."
The perpetrator was promptly arrested after he confessed to his crimes. Both illegal dumping and arson are considered serious crimes against natural resources and are treated as such within the legal system. Hayes urged residents and visitors to remember that fact.
"If you illegal dump on public lands in Lane County, you will be arrested," he warned, per KLCC.
Most states issue financial and criminal consequences for illegal dumping; in New York City, a vehicle owner or driver caught illegally dumping from that vehicle can pay up to $18,000 in fines. Similarly, arson is generally considered a felony, according to Cornell Law School, and is often met with significant jail time.
Hayes also mentioned that regardless of intent, any person found responsible for starting a wildfire — and the vast majority of wildfires are started by people, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association — can be subject to fines and damage and fire suppression costs.
"If anybody's having any type of idea or interest in doing anything that is kind of above the line or clearly prohibited during this time of year with fire restrictions, do not do it," Hayes told KLCC.
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