Photo: Facebook - Chelsea McRandom

A group of Kelowna residents cleaned up a beach, then a second group of Kelowna residents cleaned up the same beach and decorated some trees – in both instances, people got really angry.

After a group of "Mushroom Beach" users voluntarily spent an afternoon cleaning up the beach, local residents were apparently furious about the "type" of people that facilitated the clean.

“Are you kidding me?,” wrote an area-resident. “This story does nothing to improve the image at our local Lake Avenue Beach … yes, it’s called Lake Avenue Beach.

“The surrounding neighbourhood is tired of dealing with this sort of ‘stuff’ and you (Castanet) are actually harming our efforts to improve the image at that beach."

The following weekend, a group of local residents hit the sand for another cleanup at "Lake Avenue Beach." It was paid for through two grants, the Partners in Parks grant and Strong Neighbourhoods grant — worth a total of $11,000.

“This is the first time we’ve seen kids on this beach,” said resident Dayna Margetts at that event. “Often people just go through as fast as they can because of the stuff that’s going on.”

As part of their effort, the group planted more than 100 native plants and painted trees funky neon colours.

Following that cleanup, another group of people were offended. Dozens of commenters flooded Castanet's social media, comments and forums, mortified that the group would paint the trees.

“Just my opinion, but painting the 'natural' plants and trees not only looks terrible, but ironically is very unnatural,” wrote Anderson Coutu.

“Who even paints trees?!” wrote Katie Groves. “Like did they actually let the kids decide how to 'clean' the beach?”

“Those poor trees. They look horrible!” added Stefania Valor.

“This is the ugliest thing I have ever seen and I am really pissed off that this was allowed to be done to these beautiful old trees,” chimed in Sharon Tabian Schrieber. “I have emailed a complaint to the city and I hope something is done to restore the trees to their natural state.”

Still, the City of Kelowna said the tree-painting was researched, discussed and approved.

“There were staff on site during the event. It definitely was managed to ensure the appropriate trees and the appropriate product was used, ” said Louise Roberts, community and neighbourhood services manager for the city.

“It is not a danger to the trees at all. They were trying to 'animate' the area, just sort of it make it fun,” added Roberts.

“It is not permanent paint, it is temporary, it is like chalk – it will wash away. There is special product on the market just for this type of activity, safe for environment and can be used on public trees.”

She says any community group that applies for a grant has to provide a proposal that is then reviewed and approved by city staff.

“It is reviewed by an internal staff working group and is accessed on its viability and practicality. That includes representatives from parks and bylaw and everything. Our staff worked alongside them through the whole project,” said Roberts.

“They put a proposal in and we thought it was a good idea. They had a lot of people there that day and they all had a lot of fun.

Roberts said city staff were surprised by the negative public backlash.

“It has been done in other communities as a big, fun thing to do. People said it was so much fun to go out and do it. Like in all things, some people like it and some people have different opinions,” said Roberts.