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UINTA-WASATCH-CACHE NATIONAL FOREST — For years, people have been vandalizing a three-acre area of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, which has become known as the “Fairy Forest.”
Kathy Jo Pollock, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest public information officer said people come to the “Fairy Forest” and paint rocks and leave a variety of items in the trees and on the ground, such as feather boas, paper plates and other small items.
“It’s kind of started a little trend,” Pollock said.
Pollock said officials have gone into the area and have left signs and removed some of the items, but people always come back.
“We have actually gone in and tried to take stuff out, but people are painting rocks and it’s about 3 acres of an area where people are just leaving stuff and painting rocks,” she said. “The more we take out, the more people come up.”
Pollock said that vandalizing the forest not only has a negative impact on the environment, but that it is illegal.
#uwcnf Painting rocks on National Forest considered graffiti & bringing painted rocks to National Forest is illegal pic.twitter.com/1FP4XoNbqR
— UintaWasatchCacheNF (@UWCNF) September 16, 2016
“If you go along the front, you can see where people have spray-painted graffiti all over, and there’s really no difference between that and what’s happening out in this little area,” she said. “It’s still graffiti.”
Pollock said that the person responsible for starting the “Fairy Forest” trend has gone to the area to clean up.
He is scheduled to return to the area Saturday morning to make another attempt to remove the items.
