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Volunteers Help Clean Putnam County's Newest Public Open Wilderness Area: California Hill State Forest
California Hill State Forest is located in the towns of Kent and Putnam Valley. This 1000- acre wooded area, including Waywayonda Lake, can be accessed from Pudding Street or Gordon Road and is open for most outdoor sporting activities including fishing, boating, hiking, hunting, trapping, or just plain old relaxation.
On Saturday morning, June 16, 2007 volunteers including SEP, (Sportsman Education Program) Instructors, member clubs of the Putnam County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, boy scouts of troop 271, and inmates of the Putnam County Inmate Work Program met at the Pudding Street entrance of Putnam County's newest state forest. By hand and with winches, com-a-longs and ATV's work began to remove tons or of garbage from this area. By the end of the first day all large debris, including 50- year-old car and truck parts, tires, shower enclosures, plumbing pipes, fixtures and water heaters were removed from the Pudding Street entrance. All metal and steel was then loaded into a 30 yard dumpster, which was provided, free of charge, by Mr. Anthony Golia of A & N Carting located on Secor Road in Mahopac, NY.
On the morning of June 17, the second day the crew met at the foot of California Hill on Waywayonda Road. At the top four large bags of garbage and assorted junk was collected and put into the trailer of an ATV. Working their way down the road, assorted debris filled a few more bags. Between Waywayonda Lake and Road another 15 bags were removed along with old carpets, car radios and some steel debris. At the end of the road additional steel was pulled out of the creek exiting the lake. A large car or small truck frame could not be dislodged from the rocks and overgrowth and will have to be cut into smaller pieces to be extracted.
Corrections Officer James See of the Putnam County Sheriff's Department was kind enough to transport off the site over 30 bags and assorted items, including road equipment belonging to the Putnam County Highway Department. After loading up the remaining items that the sheriff's van could not hold into a pickup truck the crew returned to Pudding Street to unload the remaining steel into the dumpster. This last contribution completely filled it and the 7 remaining bags along with 14 wheels and tires were piled up nearby out of sight of the road.
Special thanks go to Anthony Golia of A & N Carting and all the volunteers especially those who provided motorized and winching equipment without which this cleanup could not have been possible. Special thanks also are owed to CO James See of the Sheriff's Department's Inmates Work Program and his crew who went above and beyond to insure the success of this project. Final tally of debris removed was over 2 tons of metal that was collected loaded into the dumpster and removed by A&N Carting. Almost 60 bags, donated by Keep Putnam Beautiful, were removed, (counting 18 bags removed by Rob Schnebly who could not make the official cleanup but put in time a week before to help out). The total approximate weight of these bags was about 500 pounds.
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