Okanagan forest cleanup crew pulls 29,100 pounds of illegally dumped metal from the bush

The founder of a volunteer cleanup group that removes trash from the forest says the latest cleanup has been one of the group's largest yet.

Okanagan Forest Task Force founder Kane Blake said 29,100 pounds of metal, found along Postill Lake Road May 9, mostly consisted of abandoned, burned-out cars and nails left over from pallets.

Blake said the group of fewer than 50 volunteers cleaned along the road which is a popular illegal dumping site in the Okanagan.

The task force even has some children on board. Blake said his friend’s children collected 80 pounds of brass shells that had been discarded at the Postill shooting range.

The amount of trash collected will be weighed tomorrow, Blake said

Since 2016, the task force has removed 224,517 pounds of illegally dumped garbage from the bush. Blake said he would like to thank all the companies and the Regional District of Central Okanagan that assisted with the cleanup.

A Conservation Officer is frustrated by the drastic spike he’s seen in illegal dumping of trash in Okanagan wildlands this year.

“Dumping has been horrific this year,” said Terry Myroniuk, a Kelowna Conservation Officer, in a previous interview with iNFOnews.

Typically, he said if there are higher fees at landfills, there is a correlation with more illegal dumping on Crown land, but since more people are in the bush during the COVID-19 pandemic, he believes there’s a correlation with more discarded trash in the bush.

“There will be more people at home so there’s more time to clean up garbage and (dump it,)” he said.