Those who have skirted the littering laws in Lawrence County would be well advised to clean up their act, or else find themselves slapped with court time and hefty fines.

For far too long, litter bugs have gotten away with dumping trash and construction debris in places where they don’t belong, including the federally-owned Wayne National Forest. But the rangers who patrol the forest and some of the people who use the forest trails have had about enough.

With the help of the Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District, the WFN now has a few new warning signs for those who might consider Ohio’s only national forest to be a landfill. And those signs shouldn’t be taken as hollow threats. The area will be monitored for people dumping trash.

Solid waste personnel and forest rangers plan to prosecute those people to the fullest extent of the law, which they should.

The Wayne National Forest is a great asset to Lawrence County and should be treated as such. People from all over the Tri-State and even the country use the forest for its many recreational purposes.

Those visitors are likely to eat in Lawrence County’s restaurants and buy gas at our pumps, bringing money into the economy.

But if they don’t find a clean and inviting national park, there is little chance of them returning.

Hopefully, litter bugs will see the surveillance of the Wayne as a sign that illegal dumping will not be tolerated.