What’s keeping one group from enjoying a favourite spot in Kamloops

KAMLOOPS – A small group in Kamloops is working together to clean up one of their favourite locations in Kamloops, behind the Batchelor Heights neighbourhood, that is being continually trashed by people illegally dumping junk.

“There’s garbage strewn throughout the whole area,” Tearia Parsons says. “We just figured we’d go and start cleaning it up.”

Parsons says normally the Kamloops 4X4 group cleans up the area. But this year she decided to start a little early because of how messy the land was. She says people have resorted to throwing old items like appliances, curtains and building materials in the area. She presumes they just don’t want to pay the City’s dumping fees.

“People just guess dirtying the hills is quicker and cheaper,” she adds. Parsons says the group was lucky enough to have their dumping fees waived by the City when they took the cleanup to the dump.

Last weekend, seven people filled a trailer and a pickup truck, Parsons says.

Because many people use the area to burn wooden palates for bonfires she adds the ground was littered with leftover nails, which when collected, filled two large bins.

"We just don't want to lose the area," she says.

Take a look below at some of the photos the group took of their clean-up last week. To help Parsons and her fellow cleaners: Melody Phillips, Veronica Love, Chilton Nystoruk, Monty Leonard and Calvin Fedechko, find them on Facebook.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

-This story was edited at 8:40 p.m. to include names of the group members and to remove a error about 4X4 competitions.