In an effort to encourage people to keep the trails in Colorado clean, Wild & CO volunteers recently worked to clean up litter and abandoned campsites along a portion of the South Platte River Trail. During the cleanup, the volunteers filled six bags of trash in an hour and a half.

Last month, another crew visited the South Platte River Trail and cleaned up piles of trash left behind by the homeless. Some of the items removed include clothes, shoes, mattresses, shopping carts, toys and bikes.

The area will be further cleaned up by Adams County, a third-party contractor and Xcel Energy, the owner of the land.

TheDenverChannel.com has more information:

Whether you're a native or newcomer, a huge reason why many people live in or move to Colorado is to soak in the beauty of the outdoors. With the big boom Colorado has seen in the population, that growth is also taking a toll on some of the more heavily trafficked recreation areas.

Wild & CO volunteers cleaned up litter along a portion of the South Platte River Trail near Fishback Park on Sunday. The group committed to encouraging people to keep Colorado trails clean is hoping to change the narrative along the Denver metro urban trail system.

“One thing I found since living here is there was a narrative that trails were overcrowded, there was a lot of litter and campsites as well. A lot of troubled areas,” said Scott Sajowitz, Wild & CO owner. “We found that there is a lot of overpopulation on some of the larger, more known trails. That’s an area that we tend to focus on as well to help educate people on how to be good stewards along those trails,” said Sajowitz.

Read the full story here.