Illegal Dumping In The Forest

Wrote this little number after my last ride up Carmi / Peat Bog / KnuckleDuster / Ellis Canyon trail - I was Funkin' Furious! This is my personal opinion, and has nothing to do with PACA. I'm going to submit it to the paper's "Letters To The Editor" section as well as the RDOS and City of Penticton. Let me know what you think...


Those of us who spend time in the forest have noticed a marked increase in a certain kind of social illness. It affects individuals who bypass the Penticton landfill, instead choosing to drive many kilometres into the forest to deposit their waste material.

To those of you who are responsible for these lowly acts; what the frill are you people thinking!? You save ten dollars bypassing the landfill tipping fee, but spend approximately that same amount in fuel, climbing way up into the mountains with your vehicles, searching for a cowards spot to dump your trash! Are you both morally corrupt and stupid?

Municipal and regional government officials need to be a (lot) more active in patrolling the common dumping spots, especially the Carmi landfill, ‘aka’ the Carmi Cross Country trails parking lot, and its adjacent forested areas.

Soulless individuals have managed to convert what were once beautiful recreational areas into wastelands of broken bottles, burnt out chesterfields and smashed in television sets, and yet there are no posted signs warning of serious fines for these acts anywhere in sight. Judging by the continual cycle of new appliance drop-offs, the heartless few that perpetuate the crimes seem to feel that they can act with impunity.

It’s literally embarrassing to bring friends or family into many locations in the valley’s forests due to the mounds of waste heaped up in otherwise pristine locations. These acts of idiocy unfortunately paint our valley with a wide brush of ignorance.

I call upon the relevant authorities to commit to action on these unsavory individuals. Here are some ideas for you to pursue.

- Hot-zone signage with Crime Stopper rewards for illegal dumping infractions, tied into a public-awareness campaign.

- Camouflaged, motion-control trail cameras with night vision hidden in hot-zones; the same cheap and efficient equipment that hunters use for game-trail tracking.

- Enforcement: several of the most common dumping grounds are situated in open and obvious locations (Carmi XC for example). A few publicly announced charges would go a long way toward showing those who dump in the forest that they are not invisible. A form of 'Bait Cars For The Bush'.

And finally, implementation of a pilot project where an individual is hired for the summer, and whose employment focuses on the illegal dumping issue. A portion of their wages and supporting costs will be compensated by infraction fines. This task shouldn't be too difficult, as there are a great many dumping grounds in the valley these days, often with incriminating evidence that a drunk detective couldn't miss, and fines for illegal dumping should be harsh!

...and this is after someone hauled the burnt-out 3-tonne truck from the midst of the kaos...



Andrew Drouin
www.sweetsingletrack.ca

I wholeheartedly agree. When I was up there this weekend, I was disgusted with myself for sharing a species with the useless few that choose to ruin it for everybody.
At least the mice (on trail, not Riddle) is still pristine. Except for the one PowerGel wrapper I found but I'm gonna blame the roadies turned dirt rider for that one.