Camas’ Mark Silliman does more than talk trash — He picks it up

Mark Silliman devotes hours each month to picking up trash along state Highway 14.

The Camas resident’s impulse dates back five decades to when he was a 21-year-old newlywed living near Sacramento, Calif. He would pull over on the way to church to hoist discarded mattresses and other litter onto the flattened roof of his Volkswagen.

“My dad taught me from an early age, from basically when I could take my first breath, that when you go into a place, you leave it looking better than you found it. It was like a religion to him,” said Silliman, 74. “But I’m not just doing it because my dad said to do it. It just makes sense. It’s common courtesy to care for the environment.”

Silliman moved to Vancouver in 2009 and Camas in 2014. He started picking up trash from the side of Highway 14 in 2019, eventually “adopting” the stretch between 164th and 192nd avenues through the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Adopt-a-Highway program.

Silliman returns to the same 600-foot stretch every couple of weeks. He often fills five to eight bags with construction debris, household waste, alcohol containers and other trash, which he loads into his truck.

“As a kid, my father took me to the county dumps, and people drove in and threw their stuff out on the ground, and you’re driving through 3 feet of crap,” he said. “It felt like that while driving on Highway 14. I’m just driving through apocalyptic scenes. So I started going out on my own.”

Silliman started volunteering for the East County Citizens’ Alliance when the Washougal-based nonprofit organization began group trash pickup efforts in 2022.

“His decked-out truck is perfect for trash cleanups,” said Madeline Lyne, a Camas resident and fellow volunteer. “He’s got flashing safety lights, bungee tie-downs for his cones, sand bags to hold his large ‘Litter Crew’ sign, extra pickers — everything necessary to safely and efficiently pick up trash. He is very passionate about our beautiful area and deeply committed to making a difference.”

Silliman still goes out on his own from time to time but believes that East County Citizens’ Alliance group cleanups are far more effective and help build a sense of community among volunteers.

“He’s just a real salt-of-the-earth person who clearly found a lot of meaning and purpose in being out there on the roadway,” said Melanie Wilson, executive director of the alliance. “He is definitely the kind of person you want in a community because he’s willing to see a problem, and he’s not going to complain, he’s not loud, he’s not going to call the city and start blaming people. He’s just going to go out and take care of it.”

Silliman worked in the construction industry, owned and operated a home inspection company and a home inspection school, and made dog collars and leashes from parachute cord before retiring. His wife, Olivia Behm, is an artist known for artwork and decorative painting in McMenamins pubs, hotels and entertainment venues across the Pacific Northwest.

Behm’s home studio is not far from Silliman’s workshop, where he makes cutting boards and knives.

“When we’re out there on the road, it’s not uncommon to find deers that have died,” Wilson said. “And whenever we see them, we take a picture of the skeleton if the bones are of a reasonable size because Mark makes his own knives and uses the bones as handles. He goes out there and scavenges for the good bones based on our photos.”

The Volkswagen with the flattened roof is long gone, but the habit it helped start remains. Silliman plans to keep heading out along Highway 14 with bags and safety vest in hand for as long as he can — at least until next year, when he and his wife hope to move to Italy.

Until then, he says, there’s still plenty of trash to pick up.

“There’s anger. There’s frustration,” Silliman said. “When I go out to the same 600 feet and I pull the same number of bags every two weeks, and I can’t make further progress without assistance, that’s discouraging.”

But working with East County Citizens’ Alliance has kept his spirits from flagging.

“I don’t think I would have continued doing this just by myself,” Silliman said. “Now, it’s like I’m adding on to the group effort. And I’ve met some great people and made some great friends.”