When Will They Ever Learn

No, this isn't an anti-war column, although I could easily write one of those. There are plenty of things people don't seem capable of learning. 
One of those is not to foul their nests. 
You would think it's pretty obvious, you don't throw your garbage on the floor or out the window, do you? I mean when that lunatic group down in Philadelphia threw their garbage out their windows in a row house, the neighbors went out and bought guns. Ostensibly because of the rats, but who knows for sure?
But people who live and fish and swim and otherwise have fun in Lake Hopatcong seem to have a problem understanding that throwing things in the lake is pretty much the same as throwing things out the window. 

About 400 volunteers took the time one chilly Saturday morning to pull the stuff out of the lake, or at least at the edge of the lake, which was lowered five feet for the five-year drawdown to allow lakefrom home and business owners to do repairs on docks and other structures without the expense of erecting a coffer dam. The volunteers, led by 40 team leaders, didn't go into the muckiest parts of the lake for safety reasons, but they still pulled out thousands of aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles, cell phones (lots and lots of cell phones) articles of clothing, tools and many, many tires. 
Now, it's likely some of those things -- like the cell phones and some small tools -- fell out of pockets when someone leaned over while fixing a boat. It's also likely a few of those cell phones was thrown at someone during a dockside domestic dispute, probably fueled by the contents of some of those cans. 
But some of the debris was the result of carelessness. Of not thinking or not caring. And that's just wrong. The lake isn't just a playground. It's a water source for downstream. It's a mechanism to recharge the watershed that has been robbed of water by development in the Musconetcong River Watershed. It's also home to fish and other aquatic animals and provides sustenance for muskrat, mink, raccoon and other mammals. 
The Lake Hopatcong Foundation, which sponsored the clean-up, hopes the sheer about of debris found will be a wake-up call to lake residents and visitors.