March 10, 2001

Eagle Ridge is an area that I myself have only recently discovered. Its scenic views of the lower mainland can be enjoyed with almost no other souls around. But apparently other souls have been there, and not the cleanest of souls. The rocky road that meanders up the mountainside has become over the years a dumping ground for uncaring people.

Our concern is that the area will be closed to motorized access (which to us as 4-wheelers is not acceptable) due to a small population of negligent individuals 'trashing' the area and most likely do not enjoy this location (our back yard).

Its blatant disregard for the land that I love to travel that led me to organizing a trail cleanup for this area. I had attempted to do this last fall, and had contacted various levels of government to enlist aid in acquiring their help in what would prove to be a very large task. After getting shuffled around in an endless loop of bureaucracy, I'd pretty much given up hope. At one point later after that, another four wheeling acquaintance and myself took a trip up there and filled the back of my truck with garbage in only a short distance. It was the amount of trash that I found that made me realize we would need more than just pickups, a dumpster was needed.

So several weeks ago, talk of Eagle Ridge on a local 4x4 mailing list prompted me to once again speak up on the Mountains behalf. With the help of Gerry Bolduc, we acquired a dumpster to be delivered and the first step was under way!

The word went out, and on a bright sunny morning of the 10th of March, 2001 I made my way to Coquitlam Centre to meet what would be a large group of fellow 'wheelers to aid in our efforts.

We left the mall shortly after 9:00 am, and began our cleanup. With people walking the trail and the trucks driving by to pick up the garbage that was evident alongside the trail and even far down the banks, we collected a significant amount of trash, consisting of: 2 truck frames, several axles, tires, rims, a battery, cement, barrels, cabinets, bricks, 2 x wrecked/stripped vehicles (ICBC notified), filing cabinets, a washer, a microwave, a PC, mufflers, tailpipes, 40+ bags of garbage and 1000's of bottles and cans etc. Snow hampered our efforts to complete the rest of the trail, but another cleanup effort is planned again for the late summer/fall to reach the lake and the lookout.

Only when you pile all the garbage together do you get a true sense of how much dumping has been going on.

Removing the remains of what was probably a stolen vehicle.

Thanks to Gary Bolduc, we had a dumpster to collect the garbage.

Why would we do this? Community spirit and we 4-wheel up there frequently along with the hikers and mountain bikers; we became increasingly annoyed that this area (to us) was becoming a dumping ground of convenience and along with that we, the 4-wheeling community, were becoming the target of blame for the trash at Eagle Ridge. I'd like to point out that a large portion of the trash appeared to be from people to lazy to dispose of it properly. There were many bags of garbage on my initial trip that were already full, but deposited in the wilderness instead of at a proper disposal site.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many individual members and clubs involved. Your help in this was greatly appreciated and it's through combined efforts like these that we may yet be able to continue our sport without fear of being closed out.

Regards,
Jeff Steiger