The Friends of Boley strive twice a year to cleanup that portion of Hobolochitto Creek — Boley for short — that flows through part of Picayune, but they are hampered in their efforts to make this lovely creek more pristine.

The biggest problem is all the garbage that washes down the creek from the illegal garbage dumps at some bridges. Some people who live in the county and don’t want to hire a private contractor to haul off their garbage dump their garbage over the sides of bridges.

These creeks, those that aren’t one of the two branches of Boley, flow into Boley Creek. This garbage attracts wildlife and rodents. Some of the garbage poisons the wildlife. The rodents, mostly big rats, bring fleas and disease.

Some of garbage is washed downstream. If it doesn’t make it to the area that the Friends of Boley struggle to keep clean, it washes up on the property of landowners who border the creeks.

It makes a mess all along the creeks, damaging wildlife and fish and defacing a landscape that is otherwise beautiful to those who canoe or kayak or fish along the creek.

Many years ago, the Pearl River County Board of Supervisors considered hiring one or more companies to pick up garbage and trash countywide and charge the residents a fee, as is done in the cities of Picayune and Poplarville. They opted to let county residents either haul the trash to the landfill at Millard or hire any one of numerous local private haulers to do the job for them.

Obvious to anyone who lives along or enjoys the creeks, that isn’t working. The county has grown substantially since the matter was first considered and the illegal garbage dump problem is getting worse.

The board of supervisors needs to reconsider this and come up with a better plan.