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Wilderness Watch Cleanup
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Saturday, May 6, 2000 The Cast of Characters: 8 vehicles, 6 members and 5 visitors: Steve Brown, Rod and Amanda Stone, Jo-jo Poole, Berry and Jenny Sintnicolaas, Jay and Nat, Dave G., Dave We left Tim Horton’s around 8:10 a.m. and convoyed to the Valley Fish and Game Club house on Mayo Road, Skutz Falls, where Dennis Martell of Wilderness Watch was coordinating the clean up. Dennis assigned our group to 2 areas, Greendale Road (a popular swimming hole) and "Joe’s Gate" (a popular dumping ground!). We cleaned the Greendale Road area fairly quickly and headed over to our 2nd area and wow …. 2 signs said "DO NOT DUMP REFUSE" … I guess people can’t or don’t read … we filled up Jo-jo’s trailer, Jay and Nat’s pickup truck and Berry and Jenny’s Cherokee with tarps, fuel cans, electrical equipment, metal, diapers and even a bathroom sink! We then headed over to the Meades Creek Incinerator with our precious (?) cargo, where after a little miscommunication, we were allowed to dump the metal into the CVRD’s bin, put the tires beside the building and the garbage into the Town of Lake Cowichan’s bin!
Dennis then assigned almost everyone to the 2 parallel roads running past the incinerator up into the bush area. We found the mother lode! Fridges, freezers, car parts, vacuum cleaners, furnaces, tires etc. all dumped in various locations, but mainly down steep banks. Rod and Steve Brown used their winches to haul up the bigger items, while the rest was chain-ganged to the road and placed on a large flat deck truck from Lake Cowichan’s Irly Bird. The Town of Lake Cowichan brought in a couple of backhoes and dump trucks to help clean up some of the duroids and garden refuse.
We all headed back to the Valley Fish & Game’s clubhouse, where hot dogs with all the trimmings were waiting, with cookies, coffee, pop and beer for all the hungry and tired volunteers. It was interesting and rewarding day – our group of Island Rock Crawlers (and visitors) were extensively thanked by Wilderness Watch and Valley Fish & Game Club for our efforts and our winches. We made front page of the local newspaper, Lake Cowichan Gazette, were pictured on page 7, and we were also the feature of a very positive "Letter to the Editor"! It’s certainly nice to be recognized for something this worthwhile. |
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By now, lots of other volunteers were rolling in with truckloads of garbage to unload and
Shaw Cable was on hand to record this event.
By early afternoon we were all getting hungry and tiring out so we headed back to the
Incinerator to dump our final loads. We were just in time to see a huge TimberWest flatdeck
truck come in loaded with freezers, couches, bicycles etc. all hauled out from the Caycuse
area. It was good to see everyone working together to help clean up the wilderness areas.
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