Inspiring Conversations with Nate Collie of Trash Dogs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nate Collie.

Hi Nate, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
After living many years in Illinois and Colorado, we decided to travel and explored the beautiful West Coast of the U.S.A. Intending for just a visit, the Collie family called Cottonwood home when an opportunity came to take over Vortex ATV Rental. With a chance to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of Cottonwood, Sedona, and Jerome, it was an easy decision.

Being in the Verde Valley for nearly four years and loving to hike, camp, kayak, and pretty much anything outdoors, the Collie family realized that with only a few companies and people designed to clean up the beautiful Verde Valley. There needed to be more consistent clean-up crews that get to places that the other companies usually cannot reach, so in the spring of 2021 Trash Dogs was started. Ever since it was started, Trash Dogs desires to create more opportunities for individuals, groups, and businesses to assist in cleaning up off-road, hiking, biking, highways, and other roads/trail systems polluted through littering, general usage, and mother nature within the Verde Valley of Arizona. We conserve land through organized cleanup, restoration, and volunteer opportunities. In addition to the cleanups themselves, Trash Dogs has and will continue to educate all volunteers and the community on proper ethics and practices to use outdoors and within the wilderness, which all work towards a sustainable future.

From our organization’s recent work of scheduled spring and fall 2022 cleanups, vast amounts of debris range anywhere from refrigerators, awnings, mattresses, abandoned campsites with tents, couches, feces and diapers, bottles and cans, tires, rugs, grills, personal belongings, and even hazardous materials to name a few. After these cleanups, we have always and will continue to dispose of these materials properly. We are now at the point where we need more volunteers, funding, and resources to help grow in the direction we want to grow, in the sense of not only having a monthly cleanup but that of placing trash cans and recycling cans at certain trailhead systems throughout Arizona.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Getting to this point has not been a smooth road, to be honest.

1) Funding – We have funded most of these projects out of pocket, and it is not cheap. After becoming an official 501C3 we thought it would get easier to receive monetary donations, but that has not happened like such. We need funding to help grow and reach our goals.

2) Volunteers – After opening the fall cleanups to the public, getting more volunteers to show up has been very difficult. We have only had a handful of volunteers show up, even though we have advertised and tried to get flyers out throughout the community to help. People keep on saying they will show up, but then never do, unfortunately. The more volunteers we have, the more territory we can cover and the more land we can clean up.

3) Brand awareness – Getting our name out there has been a slow and ongoing process. We are getting more support and becoming more established, but it happening slower than we were hoping. Once we have more awareness comes more funding opportunities, more volunteers may show up, and we will have more of a community backbone as we hope for.

4) Community communication – We are a company that started with one location, but are also looking for more areas throughout the Verde Valley to clean up. We have open forms and ways to inform us about locations, but no one has reached out for a project we could assist with. Furthermore, when we reach out to other businesses we do not get responses like we were hoping for.

5) Timing – We knew it would take time, but not this much time to get moving and get the support of any sort. We are still patient but want to still reach our end goal eventually of eventually placing Trash cans at trailhead systems.

We cannot do this until we are more established and have more funding opportunities.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Trash Dogs Inc.?
We are an official 501c3 in the state of Arizona that proposes to provide monthly organized trail cleanups. In addition to organized cleanups, Trash Dogs plans for spontaneous cleanups coordinated last minute through Coconino National Forest Rangers and concerned community members. We have accomplished clean-ups March-Novemeber 2022 as of now, and have assisted in smaller projects per communication basis. These cleanups verify a future need to focus on the trails and campsites that were not reached by other organizations designed to clean up the test areas. We also learned that with ATVs donated by a local company, this focus has been proven to be achievable.

Core values – Sustainability, Conservation, Local commitment, Education, Be the example, Community service

What sets us apart – With the help of ATVs, we get to areas unreachable by other organizations. Further, we aren’t designated to one area or another. We are new, fresh, and open-minded, and always love suggestions of how to grow and other areas to clean up. We will be the only company that will eventually place trash cans and recycling cans at trailhead systems throughout the state of Arizona. We will be one of a few organizations that will have consistent cleanups on a monthly basis.

What are we most proud of – Our name is Trash Dogs Inc. and our slogan, is “Keeping Arizona Beautiful Leaving the Forests Cleaner than Before”. Being new and motivated to grow throughout Arizona.

Though Trash Dogs has a volunteer agreement throughout the entire Coconino National Forest, the focal point of this program is within the Verde Valley. This includes but is not limited to Cottonwood, Sedona, Camp Verde, Rim Rock, Jerome, Village of Oak Creek, and Clarkdale. For specific locations of clean-ups, the organization has an ongoing list within the community that needs attention, and Trash Dogs will prioritize resources to those locations dependent on a need-be basis. The current focal point location is 89A/Bill Gray Road. This is a starting point, but Trash Dogs has the desire to grow throughout the entire state of Arizona eventually.

Short-term goals are to have monthly cleanups and the long-term goal of placing trash cans at certain trailhead systems. We are accepting monetary donations, supplies, or any other kind of donation you can think of to help us grow, and also need more volunteers. All supplies are supplied by us, all anyone has to do is show up with a positive attitude ready to clean up the forest.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Follow our work and progress on social media or take a look at our website for more information.

The next cleanup is December 30th, 2022, and the follow-up cleanup is January 28th, 2023.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.trashdogsaz.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trashdogaz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Trash-Dogs-Inc/100086187177380/