You’ve spent the entire day at a friend’s home, and it’s time to leave. You look around and realize that various members of your family have discarded the following items in various spots around the house:

An empty juice pouch, plastic straw included

A broken beer bottle, bits of glass scattered around it

A slew of candy wrappers

A bag of dog poop

After letting loose a long, exaggerated sigh and grumbling at your family members for leaving you to clean up their mess, what do you do next?

Let’s hope the answer that first came to mind was “I rush around the place, scooping up the mess, profusely apologizing to my host and asking where to stash all the trash.” (If it wasn’t, please remind me not to invite you to my home.) 

What if we moved this whole scenario out of your friend’s home? 

Your host is now the state of New York. The setting is now anywhere within the more than 4.5 million acres of public land across the Empire State. 

Your family’s filthy habits remain the same. They’re still dropping juice pouches and candy wrappers, bagging up dog poop but leaving the bags behind, and they’re getting rowdy with those beer bottles. 

You’re ready to leave the park, the forest, or the wildlife management area. What do you do next — after the sighing and grumbling, of course?

Is it the same as the one above? Are you sure? 

I’ve spotted all of the items listed earlier in my recent hiking trips on state lands, and I’ve been forced to do the same sighing and grumbling, save for one tiny twist — it’s not my own family who’s left me to clean up their mess. It’s perfect strangers who have been invited to share in our state’s magical wilderness and left their trash behind for people like me to carry out. 

Clearly these aren’t the kind of people I’m inviting to my house any time soon. How about you?