Volunteers with the Friends of the Forest Graffiti Removal team at a site needing remediation off of the Soldier Pass Trail.
On a recent morning, a group of trained volunteers made their way along the Soldier Pass Trail. Their destination was an off-trail site that attracts lots of hikers, and therefore lots of graffiti. The volunteers were from the Friends of the Forest, a not-for-profit, non-political volunteer organization. They arrived at their destination and found dozens of instances of graffiti, primarily scratches, but also from Sharpie markers. The team is trained to remediate graffiti, but this particular site contains culturally significant rock art. They performed their task under the strict supervision of a trained archeologist using soft bristle brushes and distilled water. Sadly, some of the graffiti was too close to or on top of ancient paintings and petroglyphs and could not be cleaned. Centuries-old rock art was permanently marred. The cultural heritage of Tribal communities was harmed. Graffiti is in no way a victimless crime.
The creation of graffiti on National Forest property is considered a federal crime. It can carry fines up to $5,000 and jail time up to six months. Restitution for cleaning up or repairing damage to property is also possible. The penalties don’t seem to work well as a deterrent and rarely are perpetrators caught. In and around Sedona, the landscape continues to be scarred by intentional, malicious damage, mostly when people use rocks to make scratches in the red rock cliff faces and boulders, but graffiti is also made with paint, charcoal, markers, and stickers.
Jim White, Chair of the Friends of the Forest Graffiti Removal Committee, has a team of trained volunteers that works tirelessly to remediate graffiti. The committee works closely with the Coconino National Forest Red Rock Ranger District archaeological staff. Sensitive sites require professional supervision, and sometimes cannot be refurbished.
In a typical year, over 1,000 occurrences of graffiti are cleaned up by the volunteers. The team takes group outings about once a month to visit sites that experience considerable amounts of graffiti vandalism, including Devil’s Bridge, Cathedral Rock, the West Fork Trail, and the Bell Rock Pathway. It also travels beyond Coconino National Forest, including areas within the Prescott National Forest and Slide Rock State Park. Most incidents of graffiti do not require supervision to correct, and team members are trained to work independently to clean up in these cases.
The team’s ultimate goal is to clean up graffiti as quickly as possible. There is an old saying that graffiti begets graffiti. The sooner graffiti is cleaned up, the less growth by copycats. You have probably seen instances of copycat graffiti out on the hiking trails. A good example are stacks of stones, or cairns, which can quickly multiply to dozens of cairns. Anything which does not occur naturally is graffiti, including those stacks of stones.
Please do not attempt to clean up graffiti yourself; it takes special training and tools. Also, the graffiti team has a custom-developed cell phone app to identify sensitive areas so that proper Forest Service employees are notified. This is very important, because uninformed individuals trying to help have damaged archaeological sites on several occasions over the last year. The adage “take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints” has even stronger meaning when it comes to graffiti, the effects of which cannot always be remedied.
Author, Jim White
Readers are encouraged to report any graffiti occurrences to the Friends of the Forest. Simply email photos, descriptions, and location (including GPS coordinates if possible) to graffiti@fofsedona.org. Anyone interested in joining the team can join Friends of the Forest and express an interest in Graffiti Removal. Training and materials are provided by the Friends. Go to www.friendsoftheforestsedona.
Serving Sedona, written his week by Jim White, volunteer with Friends of the Forest, appears Wednesday in the Sedona Red Rock News.