Image Credit: Wayne Dagenais
September 12, 2016 - 11:30 AM
KELOWNA – A group of shooting enthusiasts gathered at a pull-off on the way to Postill Lake this weekend to clean up a mess they say was making their sport look bad.
Last month an online task force was set up to try and address a problem they say is growing in the Okanagan and across the country; back country shooters leaving trash behind.
Responsible shooters like Kelowna resident Jesse Fleming are sick of it.
"These are the people who are going to get (outdoor shooting) outlawed,” he says. “People bring fridges and couches up there to shoot at and they just leave them there. I took two truckloads out and paid the dump fees myself and it didn’t make a dent.”
Fleming says this problem throughout the Okanagan, one of the worst spots is on the way to Postill Lake behind Kelowna International Airport. It is known to many as Little Iraq.
Before the cleanup
Little Iraq on the way to Postill Lake was cleaned up over the weekend by a group of concerned shooting enthusiasts.
(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)
“Little Iraq looks like a warzone,” he says.
After iNFOnews first shared the story, a community of shooters, hunters, environmentalists and their families volunteered their time and on Saturday, Sep. 10 returned the popular target shooting spot back to its natural state.
“Unreal how much garbage was out there,” one member writes to the Okanagan Forest Task Force Facebook page. “Thank you all so much for cleaning this up. Proving there are still good people.”
The group plans to install hidden trail cameras at Little Iraq hoping to keep clean. They also plan to organize further cleanup efforts around the Okanagan in the future.
For more information visit the Okanagan Forest Task Force Facebook page.
After the cleanup
Little Iraq no longer looks like a warzone after the Okanagan Forest Task Force organized a cleanup effort over the weekend.
Image Credit: Kane Blake
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News from © iNFOnews, 2016