The Rotary Club of Parksville AM, Kestrel Helicopters and other volunteers worked on Nov. 3, 2019 to clean up Little Mountain, which has been plagued by illegal dumping for years. (Photo courtesy Jeff Grognet)

Cleanup efforts continued on Little Mountain on Sunday, Nov. 3, with approximately 6.25 tonnes of garbage removed from the site.

It’s part of an ongoing effort from the Rotary Club of Parksville AM, Kestrel Helicopters and other volunteers to clean up the area, which has been plagued by illegal dumping for years.

Rotarian Bill Rawlins said it was a quick and efficient morning. They started taking bags from the mountain at 10:15 a.m. and were finished by 11:45 a.m. They hauled 51 fertilizer bags full of garbage off the site, up from last year’s 42.

“It went incredibly well,” he said. “It was intense, it was really intense.”

Members of the Parksville Backcountry Hunters and Anglers helped with the clean up this time, which made a huge difference, Rawlins said.

“They’ve been working on the mountain with us filling fertilizer bags and all that sort of thing prior to Sunday’s helicopter lift out,” he said.

READ MORE: Helicopters airlift trash from slopes of Little Mountain

Rawlins said they hope to have the mountain completely cleaned up by spring — in April or May of 2020.

“Hopefully, have our final lift out with a helicopter and totally finish the project by the end of April or the first weekend or so in May,” he said. “Then we got to figure out someway to make sure that nobody else goes back and starts throwing things off the cliff again.”

cloe.logan@pqbnews.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter