Image: Contributed / Debris outside an abandoned, vandalized RV on Chilliwack Lake Road.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack River Valley

Volunteers invited to clean up abandoned RV along Chilliwack Lake Road Thursday

Jan 15, 2025 | 11:15 AM

CHILLIWACK — Volunteers are stepping up to help fill the gap left by inaction from regional and provincial authorities when it comes to unsightly encampments and associated debris that constitute an eyesore in the otherwise pristine Chilliwack River Valley.

Chilliwack resident and environmental steward Ross Aikenhead says a cleanup effort will be held Thursday afternoon, January 16 at 2:30 p.m. along Chilliwack Lake Road just before Slesse Creek.

Aikenhead will be teaming up with like-minded Chilliwack-area residents who hope to clean up an abandoned RV and the debris around it.

Image: Contributed

“It’s an abandoned trailer, Mike,” Aikenhead told Fraser Valley Today over Facebook Messenger. “Most of the windows are smashed. We are going to load as much as possible into the trailer.”

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Volunteers invited to clean up abandoned RV along Chilliwack Lake Road Thursday

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Volunteers are asked to bring gloves, preferably waterproof ones.

Image: Contributed / The abandoned RV along Chilliwack Lake Road as shown from a distance.

Aikenhead said he’ll have nitrile gloves available as well as garbage grabbers for the cleanup, which materialized due to a suggestion from Chilliwack resident Janice Spenst, who works as a local postal carrier in Sardis.

The scheduled event effort follows a weekend initiative in which nearly a dozen volunteers cleaned up an abandoned encampment on Chipmunk Creek Forest Service Road, roughly 4.1 kilometers off Chilliwack Lake Road. The effort resulted in one truckload of garbage being removed, in addition to Aikenhead’s dump trailer full of metal.