Just wondering what everyone here thinks is the best way to deal with this.

Last week on a little hike I checked out a little cave on Pawtuckaway's North Mountain and someone had recently spent the night there, left broken bottles in the fire pit along with a half incenerated spraypaint can. They had also spraypainted in neon pink and green a face, a peace sign and 420 on some of the rocks in the back of the cave.

I'm hoping to get back out that way this week on another little hike and am wondering if I should bring along a can of tan spraypaint and attempt to fix the unsightly mess since I'll be going right by and it wouldn't take long. Or should I just report it to the park staff and hope they care enough to do something. I guess as a third option I could just leave it alone but my question is what would you do?

I would alert park staff. If this happened, it's entirely likely that it isn't the first time. I would imagine that they probably have some protocol to deal with it - whether it's cleaning or painting over or letting it wear off over time so as to not introduce more paint or cleaners into the environment.

I would bring it to the attention of the Park. On Mt Monadnock the staff literally scrubs the paint off of the rocks when that happens. I would think more paint is just going to be a band aid that will weather away and the graffiti will come back. Plus what if they see you painting the rocks...

I chose to report it. I would hate to get caught spray painting even if it was with good intentions. Maybe if you ask they will let you help remedy the problem.

Report it. Sad that someone escaping to nature had to make a mess of it.

I went with everyones advice and reported it. They replied promptly with this...

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I will have some one go out there and clean the spray paint off the rock. The best protocol is to remove the spray-paint from the rock. Special graffiti removers that are environmental friendly exist and that is what is used"

Once again the collective wisdom of this place doesn't disappoint!

And .... did everyone remember to buy their state park pass this year?



Very cool they replied at all, and even cooler that they will take action.
Every time something comes up that requires the park to respond , though, I'm minded it takes money ... and the state park system is mostly (if not all) funded by fees, not the NH general fund.

Just a friendly reminder ....

We've had the State Parks conservation plate for the last two years. More than paid for itself between the beaches lakes and hikes, plus I can feel ggod about helping fund stuff like this!

Ummmmm.....did we just have an eartquake as I was typing this??

Yes. 4.0 Ricter Scale.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000d75b#summary

Happened right where I live, though I was in the car when it happened. Had it hit five minutes earlier I would have been standing virtually over the epicenter. Ex-wife said she thought a tree fell on the house.

Oh - good on you Granite Guy for taking action wrt graffiti.

Excellent way to go
I huck over to the other side of the park (Bear Brook) once a year to get my season passes ...

I do find it annoying that our parks aren't better funded. I've never seen anything like this in any parks outside NH ... this is a bog bridge on one of the main trails in Bear Brook ( the one around Beaver Pond, where the campground is)





Didnt notice it here, but did read it on the web someplace ... oblivious, that's me ...