Volunteers cinched loads of dumped garbage found on Parksville’s Little Mountain to a helicopter on Sunday, marking the completion of a mission three years in the making.
“Project complete. It is so cool,” said Bill Rawlins, organizer and a member of Parksville Rotary Club.
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The massive cleanup effort was all accomplished by community members, service clubs and outdoor enthusiasts. People who have come to love the natural wonder say they have been horrified by the state that illegal dumping over decades left it in.
“We started in basically November of 2018 with the idea of cleaning Little Mountain. It’s been a dumpsite in the Parksville area for probably 50 years or longer ad we did 2 dumps in 2019 then Covid shut us down. Today is the culmination of all this effort and we’re going to clean the mountain off today,” said Rawlins.
Loads were pulled out of the wilderness by the tonnes, from bikes to trashed cars, home appliances, hot tubs, and tires.
“The garbage there was in places probably two feet deep, so I can’t imagine what that does to in terms of the environment,” said Rawlins.
“The things that are coming down, you wonder how people even got it up there,” added fellow volunteer, Andy Manson.
The next step will be putting up signs and surveillance to stop dumping in the future. So that Little Mountain stays the natural beauty these people have worked so hard for it to be again.
“To know now that it’s going to be returned now to a pristine state, it just gives you such a good feeling,” said volunteer Diana Matsuda.
RELATED: Little Mountain near Parksville has big illegal dumping problem
Skye Ryan
