West Lake Community Association members have been busy cleaning up what some people are turning into their personal dumping ground.
For the past couple of weeks, area residents have spent evenings and weekends sorting, piling and hauling junk and otherwise salvageable items from Dayton and Jeanie forest service roads in the community.
Volunteers have found everything from tires, washers and dryers, dry wall, to car starters and plastic bags full of leaves, said one volunteer identified as Dian H.
"It's just a dumping ground," she said.
Their efforts aren't going unnoticed. ABC Recycling donated a bin that they hauled away full of metal and the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George are passing out signs to remind people that it's illegal to dump their trash.
But even with their efforts, some people don't seem to care.
"We worked Monday and Tuesday night and when we went up [Wednesday] night, someone had dumped a new load of garbage," said Dian.
This is the third time in five years community association members have taken it upon themselves to clean up the area, said Dian, which correlates with when a West Lake-area dump became private and is only open on the weekends.
"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, people drive out here, they find the dump is closed, so they just continue on and that's the first side road that you could see ... we picked up over 31 washers and dryers," she said.
The community association is also pushing to get the forest service road decommissioned so vehicles can't drive in.
"Which of course hurts everyone," said Dian. "We like to go hunting out there and ride bikes."
