Oskaloosa Graduate Helps Clean A Ton of Metal from Cedar Bluffs

Wyatt DeCook, left, and a friend remove scrap metal and other discarded materials from a wooded area at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area near Oskaloosa. DeCook and several volunteers have removed more than 2,600 pounds of metal and debris from the conservation area in recent weeks.

OSKALOOSA — Just days before finishing his final classes at Oskaloosa High School, Wyatt DeCook was back out in the woods at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area hauling scrap metal, old appliances and farm junk out of the timber.

DeCook, along with several friends, has spent recent weeks volunteering with the Mahaska County Conservation Board to help clean up old dumping areas hidden throughout the park.

“So, I’ve been going with a couple friends of mine, a few of them actually, and we’ve been picking up scrap metal that were in the woods,” DeCook said during an interview with Oskaloosa News.

The cleanup effort has already removed more than 2,600 pounds of scrap metal from the area.

DeCook said the first load weighed a little over 600 pounds. The second load topped 2,000 pounds.

Among the items removed were old refrigerators, water heaters, dishwashers, fencing material, sheet metal and even an old cattle feeder weighing roughly 400 pounds.

“We found an old refrigerator, there’s a dishwasher, a bunch of sheet metal, a lot of barbed wire and woven wire,” DeCook said. “We found, I think, four water heaters in total.”

Some of the junk appears decades old.

DeCook said the group found old pull-tab cans and a burned license plate dating back to 1978.

The cleanup work is happening at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area, one of Mahaska County’s most unique outdoor locations.

Located southwest of Oskaloosa, Cedar Bluffs is known for its steep wooded terrain, limestone bluffs, prairie restoration and hiking trails. The area was once farmland before portions were restored to native prairie and conservation land.

DeCook said he has spent years hiking in the area with his father and always noticed the junk piles hidden off the trails.

“My dad and I have hiked out there multiple times before, and we’ve always seen it as we walked past,” DeCook said.

Eventually, he decided to do something about it.

“I figured that since I have a way or a connection to someone who I could ask if I can clean it up since it wasn’t getting done before, I might as well do it myself,” he said.

Conservation work runs in DeCook’s family.

Still, DeCook said this project was something he wanted to take on personally.

“It’s visually unpleasing to look at walking by,” he said. “I just wanted to clean it up.”

The work has not been easy.

Much of the junk sits deep in steep ravines and wooded ditches. DeCook described one cleanup effort where the group spent nearly an hour and a half trying to remove the large cattle feeder from a ditch.

“We actually tied straps to the truck and pulled it up that way,” he said. “We also broke five straps because it kept snapping.”

The effort nearly injured workers several times as the heavy equipment shifted while being pulled uphill.

Despite the difficult work, DeCook said seeing the area cleaned up has been rewarding.

“It makes you feel more immersive in the wilderness that you are in,” he said.

Mahaska County Conservation officials say others interested in helping can volunteer through the Conservation Board’s park steward program.

DeCook said there is still more work left to do at Cedar Bluffs.

“You think you get it all and you walk back a little farther and you find another pile of stuff,” he said.

While DeCook has spent much of his free time helping clean local conservation areas, his future plans may eventually take him far beyond Mahaska County.

He plans to attend Iowa State University this fall to study wildlife and fisheries conservation and ecology.

His long-term goal is to work in primatology, the study of primates.

“I’d love to be able to go into the field where primates are in their natural habitat,” DeCook said.

For now, though, his attention remains focused on Cedar Bluffs and helping preserve one of Mahaska County’s best-known natural areas for future visitors.