The Nantucket State Forest has become victim to excessive littering recently. Several Nantucket community members have sent the Current photos of litter scattered across the forest, in bushes, and underneath logs. The state forest is home to the island’s disc golf course and President of Nantucket Disc Golf Todd Rainwater said they are aware of the situation and have hired security to patrol the course at various points throughout the day.
“We are doing all we can to remedy the situation,” he said. “We believe it is non-disc golfers doing this and the disc golfing community is extremely embarrassed by it. For the first six years of our existence from 2012 through 2019 there was almost no trash on the course. People loved the course and never had to complain about it.”
Lieutenant Angus MacVicar said they have not been made aware of the uptick in litter, but do have occasional patrols of the course and state forest during disc golf events. Rainwater said he has no reason to believe disc golfers are the ones behind the littering.
“This is my baby and as a Texan who maybe didn’t appreciate non-littering or recycling and all this stuff like some of these guys on Nantucket always have,” he said. “I mean, these guys were even more protective as far as not littering on the course as I was. These (disc golfers) have been my ultimate allies.”
“It is very, very sad. It is just so embarrassing. I worked so hard to get this built and for the community.”
Rainwater added that stopping the act of littering is challenging because of the evidence needed, which is why he hopes the added security can help put an end to the littering.
“To stop them you have to have somebody monitoring them in real time, see a bottle being thrown in the bushes, and then see the person walk off,” he said. “The actual evidence that is necessary to cite somebody for littering is so challenging to get that evidence. People say ‘well why don’t you install cameras’ and my response is well we can install cameras but like, you know, they are going to get a fuzzy picture of some random person and then we are going to take it to the police and what are the police going to do put up most wanted posters or something like that for some fuzzy, grainy littering thing where it looks like the person littered but we aren’t sure. It is really hard.”
Nantucketer Dylan Cavaliere said he is in the area frequently to walk his dog or play disc golf. He said he has been disturbed by the larger quantities of litter, which prompted him to take several photos.
“The main point I wanted to make (with these photos) is awareness people with kids and dogs should have,” he said. “Aside from littering being awful, the fact that a dog was hospitalized last year because of something he ingested in the state forest is disturbing.”
The vandals haven’t stopped with littering. Some have taken it a step further by writing graffiti on the litter with profanity mixed in with the messages.
Rainwater is asking anyone in the area to keep an eye out for any litterers and had a message for those who are trashing the forest and the course.
“We would appreciate if the members of the Nantucket community respected the fact that we live on a small island and every inch of this island is our home and we don’t want to trash it,” he said. “We want people to respect our course like they would respect their own home.”
