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WATCH: Coming together to clean up dumping grounds

Local task force helps keep the forests clean

Many volunteers gathered on a backroad near Big White, to clean up an illegal campsite covered with garbage.

The Okanagan Forest Task Force (OFTF) hopes to help curb littering and clean up after dumping sites and waste.

The group was founded in 2016 by Kane Blake and fellow outdoor enthusiasts who were concerned about the influx of illegal dumping in forests, recreational areas, and natural waterways.

Today, they had one of their biggest tasks ahead of them, cleaning up one of the largest abandoned homeless camps on James Lake Forest Service Road.

Blake, the leader of the Task Force, was among the volunteers, helping haul the trash and operating the excavator.

“The day’s been good already because I’m not doing it alone,” he told Kelowna10. “On our average cleanup, we get a hundred plus volunteers that come out to help clean up the backcountry here.”

Volunteers milled about, assisting each other in removing and sorting through trash and separating any needles they found to be discarded safely.

Since its founding, the OFTF has removed 494,072 pounds of garbage and metal from forests.

Blake says this cleanup will put them over the half a million mark; a huge milestone for them.

“It’s hard to prevent [illegal dumping]” Blake explained.

“We need to actually stick to the 14-day rule, it’s law that you can only be in one spot for 14 days. We need to start having more patrols and action taken for people staying longer.”

In 2020, the B.C. Conservation Office issued a total of 18 fines after opening 309 files for either littering or introducing waste into the Okanagan and Merritt regions.

OFTF has multiple cleanup events throughout the year and urges residents to report dumping sites so that the trash can be removed.

Published 2022-07-09 by Matthew Levi

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