A couple dozen people and way too many donuts and water showed up on a beautiful Saturday to help clean up the “B” in the foothills of Bountiful. The clean-up occurred right before another group arranged to come and paint the famous letter on the hill. “We have a community Facebook page, and someone was complaining there was a lot of garbage at the ‘B,’” said Kate Bradshaw, “so my colleague, council member Higginson, and I responded.” Bradshaw noted that the “B” is actually outside of city jurisdiction, but has always maintained that it is actually in the city’s backyard and the foothills so this is one of the reasons that Bountiful is such a great place to live. The “B” is heavily used by motorized vehicles large and small and is a great place to hike and bike. Bradshaw threw it out on social media and arranged for a large trailer to haul away any debris collected. 

The group met at 8 a.m. and fanned out to the hills to the south and the canyon to the north. Many bags were filled by the hardworking participants and even some larger items, like an abandoned water heater, were loaded onto the trailer. “So we usually do a citywide cleanup day, but it’s in the fall (September),” said Bradshaw.  The idea is to tie it to Sept. 11, which nationwide is becoming a day of service, to accomplish something good to commemorate this day.

Another project is clean-up trails day was held June 8. On this day, people deadheaded invasive weeds, cleaned up trash, stabilized eroded areas and carried in carbonate signage to mark trails. The Trails Committee was in charge of this foothills/trails cleanup. “It’s an incredible backyard and no one is going to love our backyard better than we will,” said Bradshaw. “So let’s just go do it.”