By Anastasia Sprout | Mount Shasta Observer |

People come to Mount Shasta and look up. They look up at the mountain of course, and the sky, and the gorgeous green trees. Linda Cabitto would like them to look down once in a while, too, at the earth, and has a message, especially for visitors: "Leave no trace."

But that's not always what happens.

For nearly a decade, Cabitto has been picking up trash that other people leave behind—cans, bottles, discarded containers and whatever else she encounters along roads, trails and public spaces around Mount Shasta and beyond. She is one of the longtime volunteers behind Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta, a grassroots community effort that has quietly removed tons of trash from the Mount Shasta area over the years.

“Everybody looks up,” Cabitto said. “The reason it's pretty—I'm not saying it's just me—but there are people that care here, and they pick up the trash.”

❤️

Today, Belinda Higuera coordinates Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta, leading the volunteer effort and helping keep alive a project that began with a fairly simple observation: somebody needed to pick this stuff up.

How Clean and Safe Began

Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta grew from collaboration among people and organizations already caring for the area's trails, neighborhoods and public spaces.

According to the Mount Shasta Trail Association, volunteers doing trail maintenance were repeatedly encountering abandoned campsites and piles of trash. That problem helped inspire Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta, an effort involving the Mount Shasta Trail Association, Gateway Neighborhood Association, local law enforcement and the U.S. Forest Service.

By 2017, the organization had become a recognizable community cleanup effort. A Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce community guide from that period described Clean and Safe as a volunteer team responding to "illegal dumping, abandoned campsites, trash and unattended campfires." Cleanups ranged from a couple of bags of garbage to entire dump-trailer and truckloads.

Glenn Harvey was a pioneer and familiar face behind the organization, and spent years organizing volunteers and cleanup projects. Under Harvey and the many people who joined him, Clean and Safe worked not only in Mount Shasta, but sometimes helped neighboring communities as well. He moved out of state, but remains a member and cleanup cheerleader on the group's Facebook page.

That spirit of collaboration continues locally today. The Siskiyou Land Trust lists Mt. Shasta Clean and Safe as one of its complementary conservation partners, alongside organizations working to protect and care for the area's open spaces, trails, forests and wildlife habitat. Clean and Safe volunteers and members of the broader trail community have also participated over the years in cleanup and stewardship work on and around Land Trust properties.

Together, these overlapping local volunteer efforts help care for places residents or visitors may take for granted precisely because someone has been quietly maintaining them—from neighborhood streets and City Park to trails, greenways and open spaces around Mount Shasta.

This even includes caring for some local private properties, like land behind the Mount Shasta Shopping Center.

Linda Just Kept Going

Linda Cabitto traces her own involvement to around 2016, when she began working with Glenn Harvey and the Clean and Safe effort. She started helping downtown, and simply never stopped.

“I'll go to Weed. I'll be in Dunsmuir. I'll be here. I do Adopt-a-Highway–seven sites including a park and ride,” she said. “Wherever there's trash, I'm picking it up.”

Asked why she has continued doing it for all these years, her answer is wonderfully uncomplicated: “Because look where we live.”

Mount Shasta is a tourist town, and thousands of people come here precisely because it is beautiful. But maintaining that beauty requires people willing to do the decidedly unglamorous work of bending down and picking things up. There is another reason Cabitto keeps doing it, too.

“I'm doing it for kids too,” she said, “so they have something pretty to look at later on in life.”

Cabitto doesn't describe herself as an environmental activist. Asked whether she considers herself an “earth protector,” she hesitated. “I don't know about that. I guess kinda.”

After contemplating, she said, “It's just a passion...and a calling.”

There's Treasure in That Trash

Apparently, picking up other people's garbage can also be surprisingly entertaining...and lucrative. “You can find treasures,” Cabitto said.

Among her roadside discoveries have been marbles and, memorably, banana-slug hair clips. As shown in the images above, volunteers found movie film strewn on the ground behind the former Mt. Shasta Cinemas--likely removed from a theater trash bin. Money isn't usually among the treasures, but recycling is another matter. She saves good clothes and washes them to donate to those in need.

Cabitto now collects recyclable containers from roughly 10 or 11 neighbors who give them to her rather than throwing them away. She combines those with eligible containers she finds during her cleanup work and redeems them for California Redemption Value.

Last year, Linda says she redeemed more than $4,000 worth of recyclable containers, many collected from roadsides or donated to her by friends and neighbors. This year she was already approaching $3,000 at the time of our conversation—even after taking some time away after adopting a dog and having surgery.

Her pitch to friends and neighbors is simple: if you don't have time to recycle your containers yourself, give them to Linda. It reduces what goes into their garbage while giving the containers another destination.

Mount Shasta residents can redeem eligible CRV containers at the Siskiyou Opportunity Center, 1516 S. Mount Shasta Boulevard. The Black Butte Transfer Station, 3710 Spring Hill Road, also accepts a variety of recyclable materials and now accepts certain beverage containers, although it is a drop-off recycling location rather than a CRV redemption center.

After years of doing this, Cabitto has developed an intimate knowledge of what people throw from their vehicles: beer and soda cans, energy-drink containers, cannabis packaging, vape pens and plenty of ordinary garbage.

More unpleasant-to-find items include bags of human waste, dirty diapers, used dog poop bags, and dead animal carcasses. For Linda, even these aren't deterrents. She keeps going for the greater good. But sometimes, understandably, it gets frustrating.

“I’m appalled to see that people who travel here leave folded-up baby diapers along our roads,” Cabitto said. “I found four alongside of Hwy 89 yesterday.”

Cabitto discovered a spiritual approach to dealing with her frustration, after a friend from Tahoe suggested that instead of simply getting angry, she pray for the people leaving the trash behind.

“What a good idea,” Cabitto said, “so I’m trying too!”

Linda's steady efforts are a remarkable gift to the Mount Shasta community and those who visit here. And she isn't doing this alone.

The People Who Keep a Beautiful Place Beautiful

Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta is easy to overlook precisely because much of its work becomes invisible when it succeeds. Visitors don't see the garbage that volunteers already removed. They don't see the abandoned campsite after it has been cleaned up or know who hauled the bags away.

They simply see Mount Shasta.

The organization has survived because different people have stepped forward at different times. Glenn Harvey helped build and organize it. Linda Cabitto became one of the many neighbors who simply kept picking things up. Now Belinda and today's volunteers are carrying that work into its next chapter.

Volunteers say the work may be dirty, but it's also good exercise, surprisingly rewarding and—thanks to the camaraderie—often a lot of fun.

There is something refreshingly uncomplicated about the whole enterprise. Mount Shasta has no shortage of debates over how best to protect this extraordinary place. Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta offers one answer that doesn't require much debate at all: see something that needs doing, gather some neighbors, and do it.

This is the spirit of eldership, alive and well in Mount Shasta.

Linda puts it more simply: “Look where we live.”

Sometimes taking care of Mount Shasta really is that simple.

Recent volunteers from Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta included Coordinator Belinda Higuera, Greg Dinger, Linda Cabitto, Kate Yorke, Pattie Crossen, author, and Rog (not all are pictured here). Many more neighbors ave participated to keep Mount Shasta beautiful over the years.

📣Three cheers to the unsung s/heroes of Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta!

HOW TO GET INVOLVED WITH KEEPING MOUNT SHASTA CITY BEAUTIFUL

Join Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta on Facebook. The volunteer group organizes community cleanups in Mount Shasta, surrounding areas and nearby national forest lands. Follow Clean and Safe Mt. Shasta for cleanup information or contact Belinda via direct message on Facebook about volunteering. If you don't use Facebook, contact the Mount Shasta Observer for information.

Help maintain our trails. The Mount Shasta Trail Association volunteer program organizes trail work days that include trail building and maintenance, trimming brush, erosion repair, removing downed trees and collecting litter. Volunteers don't need to be experienced trail builders.

Turn bottles and cans back into cash. The Siskiyou Opportunity Center at 1516 S. Mount Shasta Blvd. operates a state-certified recycling center and is listed by Siskiyou County as a Mount Shasta CRV redemption center. Call (530) 926-4698 for current information before bringing a large load.

Recycle or properly dispose of larger loads. The Black Butte Transfer Station is at 3710 Spring Hill Road. It accepts trash and a range of recyclable materials. The county says cardboard, used oil, mattresses, scrap metal and paint are among materials accepted without charge, and beverage-container recycling was expanded in 2025. Black Butte is not a CRV redemption center, so it does not pay cash for beverage containers.

Use your curbside service properly. The City of Mount Shasta's garbage and recycling information provides information about WM collection, extra pickups and Black Butte. Keeping trash and recyclables contained before pickup helps prevent them from becoming street litter.

Or simply start where you are. You don't have to join an organization to make a difference. Pick up litter on your block, keep recyclables out of the trash, invite a neighbor along, and leave the place a little cleaner than you found it.