Image supplied by Ross Aikenhead / Sunday, Aug. 14 / Burnt-up camper along Chilliwack Lake Road.

By Laurice Gomes

Campsite Cleanup

Volunteers clean up abandoned transient campsites along Chilliwack Lake Road

Aug 15, 2022 | 6:00 AM

CHILLIWACK — In the past two to three years, Ross Aikenhead, along with other volunteers, has made three fifth-wheel trailers, four campers, a fibreglass boat, and an RV disappear. This Sunday (Aug. 14), more was added to that list.

“It was close to Borden Creek in the Chilliwack River Valley,” he said. “I was surprised to find a torched car and a partially destroyed pickup up there now; they weren’t there a week ago, the last time I checked the spot.”

Image supplied by Ross Aikenhead / Sunday, Aug. 14 / The torched car and a partially destroyed pickup truck.

Aikenhead said he initially went after a burnt-up camper and some other garbage that was thrown nearby in the earlier weeks.

“It looked like a household cleanup,” he remarked. “There was a drawer and buckets and just junk, but we managed to clean up the camper.”

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He added that it doesn’t take very long for vehicles to get torched or vandalized.

“People go up there, break down or get stuck, and sometimes leave a vehicle,” he said. “Some brilliant neanderthal will come along and decide that it’s a good idea to start it on fire.”

The passionate Chilliwack resident with years of (volunteered) experience for the cause, said that, according to him, part of the issue is that the conservation office and the Ministry of Forests have been understaffed and underfunded.

“This has happened for so long that even though the people who were out there with boots on the ground are awesome people, they can’t do what needs to be done,” he said matter-of-factly. “So, if it wasn’t for volunteers, none of this would be cleaned up.”

Aikenhead also commented on the recent closure of Gill Road and stated that ignorant thinking was partially to blame.

“I didn’t want to see it closed, but unfortunately, because of the attitude of some of the people that go down there, that they can just do whatever the hell they want, and the fact that it’s an environmentally sensitive area, I reluctantly agreed that it needs to be closed,” he said. “But closing it doesn’t solve the problem, it just moves it.”

He further said that a large problem exists along Chilliwack Lake Road because people camp for free anywhere beyond Tamihi.

“People go up there, they camp for the weekend, they think they’re doing the right thing because they bag up all their garbage and then set it beside the road, thinking that the garbage trucks are going to come along and pick it up,” Aikenhead stressed. “Well, that does not happen. And it doesn’t take very long for bears or other animals to come along, tear the bags open, and it’s everywhere.”

With Sunday’s cleanup, there was 150 kg of garbage removed, excluding metal scraps. Aikenhead said if people come across sites that need attention, they should call the RAPP (Report All Poachers and Polluters) line at 1-877-952-7277.

“I report pretty much everything I’m aware of, even though I know nothing is going to get done,” he said. “But if we keep bombarding the government with these issues, hopefully someday they’re going to go, ‘Well, we better throw a little money at this’.”

Volunteers that helped with the cleanup are: Donna Carlyle, Sleen Wales, Alex McDonald, Diane Peterson, Jacob Messom, and Derrick Kramer.