Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / Pattison Media / A multi-day cleanup effort intended to clear out multiple encampments on Soowahlie First Nation land and private property just south of Chilliwack Lake Road got underway Wednesday morning in Chilliwack.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Encampment cleanup

Multi-day encampment cleanup underway on Soowahlie First Nation in Chilliwack

Feb 20, 2025 | 8:43 AM

CHILLIWACK — A multi-day cleanup effort intended to clear out multiple encampments on Soowahlie First Nation land and private property just south of Chilliwack Lake Road got underway Wednesday morning in Chilliwack.

Contractor Jason Walters, Wayne Furness of F.H. Forestry Ltd. and a third individual worked all day Wednesday (Feb. 19) to clear out roughly three camps. While that number may seem low, it’s due to the staggering amount of rubbish that has accumulated over months, if not years.

Garbage is repeatedly strewn throughout the forested trails between Chilliwack Lake Road and the Chilliwack River, including roughly a dozen or more shopping carts.

Ross Aikenhead, a recognizable name in Chilliwack-area Facebook groups who goes by Nikita Aikenhead, told Fraser Valley Today that area supermarkets won’t accept the shopping carts scattered throughout the forest, nor are they interested. He estimates the shopping carts can cost anywhere from $500 to $800 apiece.

Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / Pattison Media / Multiple shopping carts have been dumped along trails just off Chilliwack Lake Road.

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The accumulated debris and garbage filled up at least half of an entire garbage bin Wednesday afternoon when Fraser Valley Today visited the cleanup efforts headed up by F.H. Forestry Ltd. and Walters. Aikenhead says the bin was a little over half full of rubbish at the end of Wednesday’s cleanup work.

Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / Pattison Media / Garbage bin containing debris and rubbish from the cleanup efforts just off Chilliwack Lake Road.

The goal of the cleanup mission is to remove as many camps from the band’s land, similar to what happened at the Island 22 encampment in Fairfield Island in January 2024 when unhoused inhabitants there were ordered to leave.

Walters estimated there are approximately 10 to 12 people living on the land, of which half are reportedly refusing to leave their encampments.

Image: Mike Vanden Bosch / Pattison Media / An abandoned encampment and other debris located Wednesday afternoon just off Chilliwack Lake Road, northwest of On The Way Store.

A Zoom meeting involving Upper Fraser Valley RCMP members, conservation officers and the band is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning. The meeting will address the ongoing efforts to remove these illegal off-the-grid camps.

Aikenhead has asked volunteers Thursday morning to join him in cleaning up the encampments and their household effects. The encampments are located just off Chilliwack Lake Road, over a kilometer southeast of the Vedder Bridge. There are walkable trails leading to the cleanup areas.