Dan Albas, MP for Central Okanagan - Similkameen - Nicola, took time amongst fellow politicians to publicly thank Kane Blake and the rest of the Okanagan Forest Task Force for removing 430,000 pounds of garbage from the backcountry.
Capital News reached out to Blake who said he didn’t know of Albas’ speech until social media notifications started flooding in.
“We were out doing some stuff and my cell phone started going off. I looked down and was like why is everybody notifying me about something. Then I clicked on it and was like ‘oh wow!’ So, it came to a shock to me.”
Blake founded the Okanagan Forest Task Force (OFTF) in September 2016 with its first task on Postill Lake Road.
“He mentioned my name, but it’s a full group effort. It’s awesome recognition for the entire group.”
OFTF is partnered with ABC Recycling and Nor-Val Rentals who lend out the large vehicles and machinery to remove heavier pieces of junk.
“Everywhere we go we’ve usually got a piece of Nor-Val equipment and ABC Recycling with their big hook truck… Without those two major players, it would be hard to do what we do.”
Blake thanked all the volunteers who have rallied behind him to keep trash out of Okanagan forests, but he added no matter how much work they do there is always more to be done.
The Central Okanagan - Similkameen - Nicola MP said to the speaker of the house earlier this week, “In many parts of my riding and across beautiful British Columbia we are blessed with truly pristine forest. Sadly, many of our forests are increasingly being violated by illegal dumping and other unauthorized uses of Crown land… Today I would like to recognize a man named Kane Blake who decided to do something about it. Mr. Blake founded the Okanagan Forest Task Force. He gathered like-minded volunteers and sponsors to work together to remove this illegal garbage and scrap metal to restore ourforests… The Okanagan Forest Task Force has removed close to 200,000 pounds of garbage and a further 230,000 pounds of metal waste from our forests.
“Mr. Speaker, I would ask this chamber to please join me to thank Kane Blake and I thank the many volunteers and sponsors for all the work they do on behalf of our forests.”
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