STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Bob Knoebel cradled several 3-inch bottles of bourbon and whiskey in his hands.

“David and I found 40 of these in a half-mile stretch along the highway just north of Bellevue,” he said, referring to David Elias Escobar, a College of Southern Idaho student. “We’ve got to do better.”

Knoebel and Escobar were among 41 adults and youth who picked up litter around Bellevue on Saturday in the Environmental Resource Center’s annual Clean Sweep. Litter pickups were also organized in Hailey and Ketchum, but Bellevue’s was particularly festive this year, thanks to Bellevue Council Member Jessica Obenauf, who arranged to reward walkers with burritos and chicken tacos from La Cabanita and live music from the Hurdy Girls.

The pile began to build.

With the extra push, participation in Bellevue doubled, said ERC board member Kingsley Murphy. Given that, a map of Bellevue streets was covered with purple magic marker, showing volunteers even canvassing parts of Muldoon and Slaughterhouse Canyons.

As participants returned to Bellevue Memorial Park, the pile of discards grew to encompass a plastic children’s sled, a never-used pair of jeans still in its wrapper, a cabinet, car tires, wooden wheelbarrow and more. Some Bellevue residents discarded their willow cuttings on the pile, while someone else appeared to discard five perfectly good lawn chairs and still another, a wood stove.

Happily, some took note and carted some of the things home, making members of the valley’s Climate Action Coalition happy as they recycled some of the discards.

“Just goes to show, what’s one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” a bystander observed.

A couple make their way to the pile with brush they trimmed from their yard.