By Angela Hill

Picking up garbage, a losing battle

May 30, 2011 | 6:18 AM

Dale McCoshen, a resident of the rural municipality of Buckland, expertly drives his truck along the tracks running near Nisbet Forest.

He’s looking at the increasing amount of garbage being dumped in the wild forest area. In the distance he can see the Prince Albert landfill.

“They don’t even charge you to take that in,” he said and pointed to a pile of dried up branches topped with a Christmas tree turned orange in the sun.

“This is some of the most beautiful country we have around here.”
In the middle of the area McCoshen loves, is piles of trash and it is getting worse.

“A lot of shingles, a lot of household garbage, a lot of used tires, those sorts of things and because we have the resource, called the forest area, it’s convenient and you just seeing the continuation of the same thing you’ve seen of the last 35 or 40 years,” he said.

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With the wooded areas becoming more accessible by vehicle, McCoshen said he’s seeing more household waste. During a short drive, he passes at least 25 dump sites. In them are dirty diapers, new-looking kids’ toys, an archery trophy, bits of a kitchen sink, an empty bottle of Nescafé and furniture.

By driving though the trails there are enough household items to equip an apartment, a washer next to an overturned dryer, a mattress on some pallets and down the way a sofa and ottoman, that don’t match.

Several years ago McCoshen began organizing events to raise funds to clean up bits of the area he loves, but he’s getting frustrated.

“It’s pretty discouraging to go out and do fundraising and ask people to contribute their dollars when we turn around a month later and see a continuation of the same problem in the same sites we just cleaned,” he said.

While he said he’ll continue to use the area to drive horses and for recreation, he might not worry about the garbage anymore.

“Maybe we’ll just do it of our own enjoyment and quit trying to clean up the thing because it’s seemingly impossible or we’re getting nowhere.”

He’s not the only one noticing the mess.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment has been receiving more complaints about garbage in the area, said Rich Hildebrand, conservation officer with the complaints and education unit.

The ministry is trying to curb the dumping.

“We’ve been putting up signs … the signs get removed.”

The trash is more than an eye sore, Hildebrand said.

It poses a risk to the environment and is a significant fire hazard.

“There is definitely some fire hazards when you pile up bush … a lot of it is dried stuff. When you have dried stuff it is a good source of igniters,” he said.

McCoshen said he thinks if the offenders could be identified, then attitudes could change and laws could be enforced better.

“We’re concerned and amazed that people are continuing to treat our part of the country that way. We live in a particularly nice part of it,” he said.

Hildebrand encourages people who witness dumping or see lots of garbage to contact a conservation officer at 1-800-667-7561.

ahill@panow.com