British Columbia

Annual cleanup planned for popular dumping ground at Lac Du Bois

The third annual Lac Du Bois grasslands clean up gets underway April 8, 2018.

More than 18,000 kilograms of garbage picked up by volunteers over 2 years

Members of the Kamloops Naturalist Club and other groups clean garbage during the Lac Du Bois cleanup event in 2017. (Kamloops Naturalist Club)

People in the Kamloops, B.C., region are headed out to the Lac Du Bois Grasslands this weekend to clean up garbage that's been dumped illegally in the protected area.

The annual cleanup began in 2016, run by the Kamloops Naturalist Club and other groups who use the area for recreational purposes. 

In the event's first two years, more than 18,000 kilograms of refuse has been cleared from the spot and taken to the dump, including cement blocks, old televisions, furniture and even the body of an old car.

"It is disheartening," Franky Ritcey of the Kamloops Naturalist Club told Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce.

In 2017, about 140 people took part in the cleanup, and Ritcey is expecting the same number this year.

Thousands of kilograms of refuse have been cleared from the Lac Du Bois Grasslands Protected Area over the past two years. (Kamloops Naturalist Club)

Ritcey says the only way to solve the issue of dumping at Lac Du Bois is for people to keep an eye on the grasslands and phone authorities when they see something questionable.

"If people know there are lots of eyes on them, they're not going to do it," he said.

The clean up begins on Sunday, April 8, at 9 a.m. PT.

With files from Daybreak Kamloops