A Moraga Rancher's Rocky Dilemma

Paint cans and trash left behind by kids who climb the hill to paint the rocks at the intersection of Moraga Road and Rheem Boulevard are causing Patch readers to ask: Can this mess be cleaned up?

We put the question first to Scott Carr, the rancher of the cattle that graze the land.

“They’d just come right back and paint it again,” he said.

Carr has worked on the land ever since he was a boy and his father, Sam Carr, was in charge of the herd.

“You can guarantee, pretty much once a week they’ll cut the fence, or stomp on the wires to get to the rock. They’ve been doing it for 50 years,” Carr grumbled.

What irks him, more than the trash they leave behind, is the damage to the fence. And it’s not the expense and time repairing it that gets his blood boiling. On Sunday, Jan. 16, Patch reported what happened when one of his cattle got out.

“There was a cow walking right up Rheem Boulevard,” he said. “The police department called me.”

Carr worries that a cow or a person could get hurt  And he doesn’t like the thought of doubling as a night sentry to catch the perpetrators — or the thought of replacing the “no trespassing” signs that have been vandalized by rock painters.

“Does everything have to be posted with a warning for kids to think it’s not theirs? Why don’t they go up and paint the rock ‘No Trespassing’?” he suggested.

Roger Poynts, who calls himself the Managing Director of Rheem Valley Properties LLC, but who Carr referred to as “the owner,” said he doesn’t know how the rock painting could be prevented.

“It’s been going on since there were rocks,” he said.

Both men would be pleased to have the empty paint cans and trash cleared away, but voiced concerns about liability.

“They’d have to hike up the same way they come up to paint,” Carr worried. “Ten years ago, a kid from Campo organized a clean-up group, but it wasn’t official.”

“I have no problem with that happening,” Poynts said, when asked about arranging a community group to rid the hill of cans and trash, “but it would have to be done safely, including keeping the cattle from harm.”

Carr said he’d rather no one came onto the property ever again, but if a group wanted to sign a liability agreement releasing him and the owner from responsibility, he’d be willing to make arrangements.

Like any rancher, his main concern is the cattle and protecting the owner’s property.

“Besides the paint cans and the fence, it’s pretty harmless,” he admitted.

So there is the answer Patch readers: yes, the mess can be cleaned up. Question is, who will sign on?