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Since 2016, the Okanagan Forest Task Force (OFTF) has removed more than half a million pounds of garbage from the region’s backcountry.
The volunteer organization was started by Kane Blake and has since gained a loyal following of people who pitch in on his frequent trips into the wilderness to clean up illegal dump sites.
But even with many hands on deck, it’s a tireless and continuous effort as people continue to use the backcountry as their own personal garbage dump.
“This isn’t just a BC issue, this is a worldwide issue,” Blake told KelownaNow. “There’s garbage in the backcountry all over the world.”
Blake is hoping that the production of an OFTF documentary will help people in the Okanagan and beyond realize what is happening in these pristine places of nature.
“We still find lots of people that don't really know what's happening in the backcountry,” he explained.
“A lot of people, they sit in town and they look up and go, ‘oh, the mountains are beautiful,’ until you get up there and you realize a lot of them are being treated like landfills.”
With that in mind, the documentary will be free to watch when it’s eventually released, expected to be later this year, as the main focus of the film will be education.
And if people watch and share the documentary to help spread that educational tool, the countless hours of combing through footage from the past eight years will all be worth it.
“It takes hours and hours to make a documentary and we want it to be something impactful that reaches out to people.”
For more information on the OFTF, click this link.
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