Photo: Kane Blake

Kelowna's Canadian Tire is helping to keep the backcountry clean.

Okanagan Task Force founder Kane Blake tells Castanet he is very grateful after local Canadian Tire manager Todd Jones reached out with an offer to support OFTF.

“This partnership is great, and the group already uses Canadian Tire as a source for trail cameras, winches, and other back country needs.”

In a news release, Jones says he is an avid outdoorsman and he believes the OFTF is doing important work.

Blake recently had work on his Ford F350 done after he had a breakdown while hauling trash out of the bush.

“The truck is riding great! I am beyond grateful that I now have a reliable truck for hauling garbage out of the backcountry. Without all this help from the community, we weren’t sure when or how we would get back out patrolling,” Blake says.

The group and volunteers from around the Okanagan have been out in full force this past week doing multiple clean-ups, and have removed over 351,000 pounds of illegally dumped garbage to date.