One week ago, we were again reminded of the value of our environment by the annual celebration known as Earth Day. Instituted during the 1970s, the event has come to represent a day when a greater focus is placed on our world and on our natural resources, as well as ways to preserve both, and ensure their sustainability and availability for coming generations.

I celebrated the day quietly by writing, reading, planting a few seeds and taking a short walk in the woods. With much of the landscape still undergoing the process of spring renewal, I encountered thick carpets of last year’s leaves and pine needles, the decaying remains of trees that fell during winter storms, and lots of new greenery pushing its way up through it all.

Then I saw them, the ubiquitous reminders that not all of us respect the Earth from which we sprang, and that not all of us remember that without much of what we see around us we wouldn’t be here either. With sadness, I looked down the slope leading away from the road toward the Wadleigh Pond inlet at empty beer cans, Styrofoam coffee cups and glass bottles, among other detritus, most of which are not biodegradable. And so there they will sit until nature covers them up with more autumn debris, but they will never completely go away.

With what sort of carelessness and irreverance are these things just tossed there? Is it the only alternative to cluttering up one’s vehicle or having to carry an empty container along on a walk or an ATV drive? Why is the Earth, our greatest gift and most generous provider, also the recipient of all our trash, refuse and our unwanted items? Do we not ask enough of it already? And is there no other place than a front lawn, a driveway or a backyard for discarded furniture, defunct washing machines, mattresses and torn bags of last year’s leaves? What is the point of bagging leaves up if they are going to be left there to split open and ultimately return their contents to the ground where common sense dictates that they should have been left in the first place? It’s one thing if those bags of leaves have a purpose, such as mulching the garden or flower beds, but it’s quite another to just leave them there, as their density snuffs the life out of whatever other plant life upon which they may be sitting.

I get a sick feeling whenever I see what could be a lovely, pristine place defiled by garbage. And more and more, I’m seeing odd items ending up in even stranger places ”“ upholstered chairs and obsolete computer monitors deposited among the trees on a side road or worn tires and empty motor oil jugs tossed into a ditch. In all honesty, I can find no reason or excuse why this should go on and why the individuals who spoil the beauty of the natural world with their litter should be given the benefit of any doubt.

As it seems there is for our waterways, why are there so little enforcement against polluting the land itself? For what exists on the surface of the soil eventually washes into every single waterway that connects our lakes and ponds via our rivers and streams to the sea. And whatever is left to rot on the land eventually ends up in the watershed either by being swept away by the rains or absorbed into the soil only to decay below ground and seep into our wells and aquifers.

Everything decays, but not at the same speed and not with the same beneficence. An apple core tossed out a car window will decompose quite rapidly and reassume the biological makeup of the soil from which it grew. A metal can, on the other hand, will spend years rusting, while a styrofoam or plastic object will very slowly disintegrate, releasing its toxic components into the soil. And where do we think these components go? And the same could be said of any other type of synthetic material left to rot and of which so many of our most common items are made.

The saddest part of all this is that it wouldn’t take a monumental effort to clean up a large part of our environment. If each and every one of us tried a little harder to better maintain and beautify our small corner of the world, the cumulative effect would be a landscape much more pleasing to the eye and to the Earth’s heart, as well as a cleaner environment whose effects would spread much as does the bad stuff that poisons our water, our air, our soil and our bodies.

It is a choice that we all must make, and it has been all along. Isn’t it time that more of us made the right one?

— Rachel Lovejoy, a freelance writer living in Lyman, who enjoys exploring the woods of southern Maine, can be reached via email at [email protected].