COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – Tubbs Hill is known for hiking, camping and as of last summer, man-made fires.
City leaders are now making plans to keep a better eye on the terrain that that runs right up against Downtown Coeur d’Alene.
Rachel Lunberg has hiked on Tubbs plenty of times before. She is no stranger to running into stuff that some of those people leave behind.
"We've seen a lot of garbage up there. It's not very clean," said Lunberg.
Parks and rec employees recently found a shelter in the area and removed it. City leaders said some camps found on the hill are from homeless people. The real issue though is makeshift campfires.
"In 2015, we had eight fires on the mountain. Two of those were attributed to transient camps," said Deputy City Administrator Sam Taylor.
To make sure that fires like these do not pop up on Tubbs anymore, the city has started to routinely patrol the area. It is primarily parks employees doing this, but police sometimes conduct their own patrols as well. The hope is to prevent fires before they start.
The other issue is people damaging trees on Tubbs Hill and that is against the law. Camping is also illegal in the area.
"It is one of the jewels of our park system. It's 120 acres of pristine forest and we want to keep it that way," said Taylor.
If you are found guilty of camping on Tubbs Hill or damaging property, you could be found guilty of a misdemeanor.