Illegal dumping up Postill Lake Road in Kelowna

As many positive outdoor activities are seeing an increase through the COVID-19 pandemic, so are some negative ones. According to Kane Blake of the Okanagan Forest Task Force, illegal dumping is on the rise. The task force’s goal is simple, to work to keep forests clean and to bring public awareness to the issue of illegal dumping in local forested areas.

A video posted to the task force’s Facebook group shows Blake pointing out, spent rounds of shotgun ammunition, shingles, insulation and dozens of garbage bags strewn across the wooded area along Postill Lake Road, behind the Kelowna International Airport. “I haven’t even made it a kilometre in and I’m already absolutely disgusted,” Blake says in the video. “Literally everywhere I look is dumped yard waste, dumped garbage, wildlife swimming with garbage, streams that have burnt propane tanks sitting beside them …” At one point, Blake gets upset as he turns to a duck swimming in pond filled wtih garbage. Kelowna Capital News has reached out to both the Regional District of Central Okanagan and the B.C. Conservation Officer Service for comment.