Garbage REmoval Project

December 15, 2015 was a day with a great sense of accomplishment for the Friends of McIntyre Creek.

 Two years ago a Whitehorse resident dumped some large household articles over the cliff
at a very well used wildlife viewing site.

The Friends of McIntyre Creek’s mandate is to monitor and preserve the integrity of the
Creek. We therefore took action to deal with this careless dumping of waste, which was not only an
eyesore, but a real threat of toxic contamination to the fauna and flora of the Creek.

The Friends of McIntyre Creek approached Heli Dynamics to see if they would work
with us to air lift this garbage to a place that the City of Whitehorse could manage the
disposal.

 Heli Dynamics quoted us  a fair price for the job and we were thereby able to approach
The Yukon Fish and Wildlife Enhancement Trust  for sponsorship  for the charter of the
helicopter.  With this sponsorship,  we were able to involve the City and Yukon
Government, and made the decision to wait until the ground froze, enabling us to gather the
garbage  into a net for retrieval.

On December 15th,  three nets full of  garbage were lifted by helicopter from the valley
floor and placed in a turnaround big enough for the City’s truck and loader to load and remove the items.

The Friends of McIntyre Creek wish to thank the following people and groups who assisted with this Project:

- Ta’an Kwach’an Council and their wildlife technician Phil Emerson, who gathered the garbage into the net.

- The President of the Whitehorse Disc Golf  Association, Ryan Norquay,  who worked along side of Phil ,also donating his time and energy to gather the garbage  into the nets.

-  Heli Dynamics for the assistance they provided to lift the 3 nets full to a  better place.

-  Marc Boulerince from City of Whitehorse Parks Department for  his help in getting the dump truck and loader and being by for extra hands when needed.

This cleanup was accomplished with the help of many hands, and we cannot express enough thanks to everyone who assisted.

We will continue to monitor all areas for garbage dumping and abuse to the water shed.

As well, we continually monitor  the health and status of our wetlands and streams
through our official Wetland Keepers program and  Stream Keepers program.

Please help us to keep this area in its untainted, natural state for all to enjoy.



The Friends of McIntyre Creek.