Some 7 tons of polypropylene hay string have been collected by Four Corners Back Country Horsemen over the past year to be shipped Thursday to a recycling center.
“The Backcountry Horsemen realized how much hay string is going to landfills, and we wanted to minimize that,” said Dave Keese, a member of Four Corners Backcountry Horsemen.
The hay string has been collected over the last year, and Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen has joined the effort to collect old, discarded hay string from ranches in Montezuma and Dolores counties.
A collection hub was set up at Basin Coop Inc., 26103 U.S. Highway 160, in Durango. It served as the central collection point over the last year.
Now, about 14,000 pounds have been transferred to Keese’s Elmore’s Corner-area ranch for shipment to a recycling center in Johnstown, near Greeley, one of the few recycling centers that can handle polypropylene.
Backcountry Horsemen, which has chapters across the country, was founded to help the U.S. Forest Service pack in equipment and personnel to maintain trails and infrastructure in wilderness areas, where modern machinery is prohibited.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
