Garbage dumped and burned in the forests above Roberts Creek and mature trees poached seemingly for firewood have sparked concerns from local residents and officials.
Roberts Creek resident Jim Budd says he has witnessed and reported multiple instances of illegal dumping and burning in the forest less than a kilometre from his property.
“There is this beautiful clear cut with these huge trees all around it and there's [remains of] fire, fire, fire, on the way in. There's a trailer they burned, there's even a boat they burned,” he said.
More than 20 freshly cut stumps are visible from illegal logging in the area, with some trunk diameters as large as 96cm, said Budd. Budd showed Coast Reporter a video shot by one of his neighbours on Sept. 8 (while any sort of burning was prohibited), of a large, open fire burning freely next to a pickup truck, with three people inside the truck. There is no available water in the area and the people in the truck are not verbally responsive.
Budd and his neighbours reported the incident to RCMP, as well as the Report All Poachers and Pollutants (RAPP) line.
Since then, however, Budd has still seen the group transporting loads of firewood out of the forest.
Having lived on the Coast for more than 40 years, Budd says his biggest concern is the potential for a large-scale interface fire, where both buildings and forest fuels burn simultaneously.
Pat Higgins, fire chief at Roberts Creek Volunteer Fire Department confirmed that his team has responded to the garbage-burning fires, “I think we're talking about a fairly small number of people in reality. It's just that what they're doing is huge, and could affect a whole lot of people.”
Higgins clarified that for fires in this area, the department works in conjunction with BC Wildfire Service in order to coordinate the quickest response.
Higgins said the fires were first reported to his department by residents who happened to come across the active burning. “They drove up there and they found three males with a large fire going. And as I was told later, they were collecting people's residential garbage and instead of taking it to the landfill, they took it up the hill and burned it.”
Higgins said that Kelly Backs, Sunshine Coast Area director for Roberts Creek is suggesting people who hire independent contractors to remove their garbage only pay them half of of the fee until a receipt from the landfill can be shown to confirm the garbage was legally disposed of.
According to Higgins, some of the trees poached were over 125 years old.
The area is designated as Crown land, so the fire department reports the fires to RAPP and conservation officers.
Sgt. Dean Miller, conservation officer for the South Sunshine Coast, said this has been an ongoing issue in the community for years, and that action has been taken against this most recent stint, including an investigation that is under way.
“It's a higher level interest for us, because not only was this burning occurring during the fire ban, which is a huge public safety issue, it's the fact that municipal waste was being dragged up to the forest and dumped off,” Miller said.
Miller also noted that the amount of fuel required to move this amount of garbage into the forest would have likely been equivalent to the dump fees.
Higgins reiterated the fire concern. “We here at the fire department are all about prevention, we spend a lot of time in efforts on public education on fire safety,” he said. “It's certainly a different thing when you have individuals that behave totally contrary to common sense.”
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
