Vandals have tagged the beautiful scenery at Tanque Verde Falls Trail with graffiti, leaving Coronado National Forest workers trying to figure out how to clean it without further harming the environment.
Blue, black and purple paint can be seen in photographs, scrawled on rocks near flowing water filled with frogs and wildlife. It is this dilemma which the park’s public affairs special resource assistant, Kaitlyn Tyler, and her team are brainstorming to solve.
The job of safely removing the graffiti without having chemicals enter the water below is a task the park’s team has been working on since becoming aware of the vandalism.
Tyler called the approximately 40 hours it will take to safely remove the graffiti “a shame”, as those hours could be spent tending to the park in a different way.
She said the more than 50,000 visitors who visit Coronado every year should be met with the beauty of the Arizona landscape, unsullied and unpainted.
“We are aware of the graffiti and we are going to make sure it is cleaned up safety,” she said. “I understand their good intentions and that people want to help, but leave us to it.”
Tyler said the clean-up process should be completed by the end of the week.
Anyone with information is asked to call 88-CRIME, the anonymous tips line.
