A wild bird is in an extinction crisis

 Marbled Murrelet ~ extinction crisis 

   During climbing / backpacking, people usually do not use water for cleaning their tableware, silverware and cookware so much.  Typically, they use paper to wipe and clean them.  I usually carry bath tissue for this purpose.   However, many people still wash them with water during a typical family camping.  Also, people use some disposal stuff to avoid cleaning.  I think this is okay as long as they keep clean around a faucet.  For example, using a bucket to wash them instead of using water from a faucet directly.  Because using water from faucet directly, some of food wastes could be on the ground.  Many faucet at a camp site typically does not have a sink.  Therefore, there might be higher chance to spread the food waste without using bucket.  

   I found out a policy change in a state park when I camped there in May this year.   They started charge a large amount of fine if people leave some food wastes at a camping area.  It is a kind of common sense for all campers.   But there is another reason people need to pay special attention for their food.  Because some of wild birds are in an extinction crisis.  Some of foods and food wastes that human bring to a campsite is a big cause of braking the food chain.  One of big problems in the park is ravens.  Its population is getting increased due to some food / food waste around the camping area.  Then they will eat eggs for those wild birds.  Originally, the population of raven in the area was not so many.  But many people start coming to the camping area and leave some foods / foods waste, therefore ravens are also coming to the area to look for those foods and their population is getting increased.

Raven

   That is the reason the park decided to define a new regulation to control those foods in the camping area.  As a part of changes, I also saw a sign which says “DO NOT WASH xxxx”.  Even though I still saw some food wastes around the faucet.   I guess this is because it is hard to identify who did in the faucet which is in a common area.  If it is a camp site, it is obvious who did.  Also, most of people do not take this very seriously because they probably do not know the background of the regulation.   For our group, we often attend a ranger hosted camp-fire many times.  At the camp-fire, a ranger kept explaining what actually is going on.  So people really understand the situation and understand why we need to do.  The problem is many people are not aware what is going on.

   We probably better to pay more attention what is really going on the area where we enjoy our outdoor activities.   It is not so difficult to manage the foods and food wastes during our camping.  Cleaning them is one of areas we might need to consider different way during a family camping.   Just using a bucket, will help not to spread food waste as well as saving a lot of water during cleaning.   Also, it might be a good idea to wipe them before washing.