The Fort St. James National Historic Site’s Kevin Gedling has proposed a clean up of the beach area in front of the historic site for Earth Day.
Gedling would like to see a beach clean up by the community and a barbeque afterwards for the volunteers on April 20, given Earth Day will fall on Good Friday.
“We would like to get this area presentable for our summer visitors and safe for kids to enjoy,” said Gedling in his letter to the community stakeholders.
Gedling wants to show the community all the stakeholders working together and has invited the district, the Chamber of Commerce, Nak’azdli Band, Greening Up Fort St. James, and The College of New Caledonia to participate alongside the historic site in a clean up day at the lakeshore.
As part of the designated historic site, Gelding says “the lakeshore, which has become sadly referred to as just ‘the path’ and in particular, the lakeshore is badly in need of a clean up.”
“It’s been a sadly neglected resource for many years now,” said Gedling. “As a connection to the lake, it offers direct opportunity to communicate messages relating to our aquatic connections in terms of history and modern days; it is also an area which badly needs to be monitored and taken better care of by all community stakeholders.”
Council voted in favour of donating bags, but the mayor spoke out against donating money towards the barbeque. But members of the council will also offer up their trucks to haul away the garbage once the bags are filled.
“I think it’s a great thing to start to work together,” said Councillor Bev Playfair.
“I just think it’s a win-win situation for everyone if we participate.”
The mayor was a bit pessimistic about the long-term effectiveness of the clean up however.
“It will never, never, never be cleaned up and stay cleaned up,” said Harwood.
“It’s the way people go from the reserve to the community.”