Washington Parish is a beautiful area with abundant farmlands, forest lands, streams and other resources. What a pleasure it is to drive throughout our parish and view all that we have been given. I am concerned, though, when I drive through areas where the roadsides are cluttered with unsightly litter. This is not an expression of who or what we are as a parish.

Soon I will be placing signs at strategic locations where roadside litter is evident. Please read these signs carefully and let them serve as a reminder not to litter. If you have items in your vehicle that you want to discard, please hold on to them until you are home or in another location where there is a litter disposal container. Litter control begins with each of us.

Litter is a problem throughout our nation and state. A quick internet search reveals that approximately $11.5 billion is spent each year nationwide to pick up litter. Most common forms of litter are plastic items, fast food containers and cigarette butts. Astonishingly, cigarette butts account for 50 percent of all roadside litter. Besides being unsightly, items such as plastic and cigarette butts do not deteriorate and often end up in our waterways.

Your Sheriff’s Office is doing its part to help combat litter. Each day, low risk inmates from our jail go with a parish litter patrol to collect litter. This is not enough and it is disheartening to clean litter from one area and then find additional litter the next day in the same area.

Warden Bobby Tanner and his fine staff from Rayburn Correctional Center work daily throughout our parish picking up litter from our roadsides. I commend them for all they do.

All of this helps. The ultimate solution, though, lies with each of us. I pledge to do my part and I ask you to do the same. Let’s keep Washington Parish beautiful.

More information on littering in Louisiana is available online at the Keep Louisiana Beautiful website, www.keeplouisianabeautiful.org.

Randy Seal is the sheriff of Washington Parish.