Why do people "trash" courses?

I am wondering why people leave their litter all over disc golf courses? I installed a new course at Black Butte Lake (a Federal Park outside Orland CA) last Friday (12/18/09). Yesterday when I went out to meet some Rangers to discuss how things are going so far, I picked up a 6 PACK of Natty Ice, 1 Coors can, a 2 liter soda bottle and an empty bottle of JAGER! All on the first 9 holes! What's up with that? How is it that disc golfers have so little respect for themselves, our courses and other park users? You would think it would be otherwise, but again and again it is proven not to be the case...

Any thoughts?

[John]

It the same at my home course ,it's mostly causal's who just don't care
we have nine holes and i throw nine and by the time i be another 9 the trash on the ground again that on a summer day though its dead most of the time but its annoying man

[Nascar Dave]

First, thank you for picking up the trash you did.
Second, there is no plausible answer for the question you pose.
Third, perhaps the title of this discussion would be more appropriately penned "What is wrong with the persons that trash courses"?
I do however find my impression of individuals who trash courses to be very negative. To the point that I care not to even associate with them on or off the course.

[BogieWon]

I am really looking forward to catching people in the act of littering at this course. I intend to chew them out, then have the Rangers have their way with them. I'm guessing that the fines for littering on Federal property would be pretty stiff!

It just really ticks me off!

[Twoputt]

I feel ya! I have a new course that we installed this year. I go out every Sunday morning and pick up trash. The normal types of trash don't bother me as much as the beer cans, as this is a no alchohol park and we are trying to coexist with the other park users. I though about this a while, and have begun to use my range finder. I can sit WAY back from most all of the holes and watch who is throwing stuff on the ground. I have chewed on two different players that I caught. I told them to go back and pick it all up or I could let the police tell them do it and they can get a bonus of a $97 fine with loss of park use. I'm just a firm believer that if you can carry it in, you can damn sure carry it out. I know I sound like a Richard Cranium but I've worked hard on that course for them to be able to play it and I want them to at least act like they respect it.

[AK Discer]

Stuff like this chaps my ass. We even have courses here that have garbage cans at every single hole and you still find crap like that all over. I mean is it REALLY that hard to throw your crap away...especially cigarette butts. I bet places like Japan don't have the same problem, people seem to have more respect for their environment. I think they just all need a good asswhooping and "maybe" it'll make them think twice.

[Eric J Kociemba]

i really dont thin japan would be much different. japn has a huge problem with air pollution and they have lose regulations on this like that so i dont think they would be any different. however it should happen anywhere.

[Ian Macpherson]

It's called stupidity.

A wise man once said "you can't fix stupid".

You can however have them tossed off the course and legally prohibited from coming back.

[n Mucker]

These people have lack of respect for others and mother earth. There needs to be more receptacles for recycling and deposits with locks on them because of the people who come by and take the bottles and cans to make a quick buck. There also needs to be a trash can on every hole so people have no excuse to throw their trash on the ground. Last but not east monkey see monkey do, if more people throw their trash away it would lead as an example for others to do the same.

[mike p. kurtz]

i don't understand your logic on locking up to prevent bottles and cans being recycled. you would rather they be sent to the landfill . makes no sense to me!

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

In most cases people are just plain lazy...others just don't care. It sucks...but it is the nature of the beast...build something outdoors for recreational activities....you get litter.

In one of our parks installing some trash cans has helped....a lot. In another we had to remove them do to the high volume of homeless related trash...those were 5 gal pails at several of our tees...it got to be too much to keep up with those buckets...so we removed them. I for one have no problem letting the homeless drunks know about the trash issue...so for the most part a few of them now actually take their crap to a bigger 55 gal drums around the park.

[Ben Calhoun]

Boils down to..if you have room in your bag and the energy to carry a Gatorade bottle that weighs 2 lbs. at the start of the round, don't you have room and energy to carry it back out empty?

[Justin]

I was just out on the Willows course and found that someone had ripped the rules and etiquette sign off of the post. I assume that this was the action of a vandal and not a disc golfer (hopefully). I picked up a few pieces of trash during my round, too. I like to give disc golfers the benefit of the doubt and assume the trashers are others just using the park. But it is hard to do that in your case. The only reason to be in that area at BBL is to play golf. Plus, in addition to being d-bags for littering, they also drink crappy beer. :)