SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – An abandoned campsite discovered at the Badlands Wilderness Area prompted the Badlands National Park to advise people of the ecological harm leaving behind waste can cause.
In a Facebook post, the Badlands National Park (BNP) said they found the abandoned site with large quantities of food, soaked sleeping bags, and a lot of trash in the area. They said that if rangers hadn’t been made aware and launched a clean-up effort, the wildlife would have been negatively impacted in many ways.
Badlands National Park emphasized that leaving debris behind is not only negligent, but illegal. The state of the abandoned site also concerned rangers, as they considered the campsite could have been left that way due to an emergency.
“Due to the dilapidated nature of the site, our first assumption was that something had gone very wrong, and that people may be injured or lost. As such, first responders were deployed, and the time they spent on this could have been used to help those who really needed it.” BNP wrote in their post.
Badlands National Park reminded people planning a trip to the Badlands backcountry to be prepared, and if you pack it in, pack it out. Citing the Wilderness Act of 1964, BNP said to take only pictures, and leave only footprints when out in wildlife.