The Burns Lake Community Garden has seen an alarming rise in vandalism at the garden.
A Facebook post made by the garden committee said, “it has come to the attention of many of our members this spring that the Community Garden has been vandalized numerous times. We are aware that there are individuals who are using the garden as a gathering place, drinking in the greenhouse, damaging garden property, and leaving behind mess and garbage.”
The community garden has been a great spot for the community members especially during COVID and has unfortunately also become a focal point for miscreants in the past several days.
Post-winter, the community garden has been getting quite an upgrade. With donations from Babine, Decker Lake Forest Products, Burns Lake Community Forest and Tahtsa Timber, and work by Trevor Nicholls, the community garden’s raised bed project for the greenhouse was recently completed.
The garden is now offering its members a chance to win prizes from Honeysuckle Garden Centre, for helping weed the common garden area.
“We’ve had lots of good news to share recently, with the generosity of our community coming together to complete our greenhouse raised beds!” said the post adding that the bad news was the increasing vandalism.
“Obviously, we are very concerned and this is unacceptable. We want the garden to be a safe and enjoyable space for all of our community. While we have notified the police and requested that they include the garden in their regular rounds, we also need the help of our community and the neighbours of the garden to help us protect our beautiful space and all that has been invested in it over the years,” said the garden committee members in the post.
Residents and garden members are encouraged to call the RCMP if they witness any suspicious activity at the garden. “Taking pictures and/or reporting to police the descriptions of anyone you see acting disrespectfully in our space is especially helpful,” said the post.
Anyone with information about those involved in the vandalism or anyone who has any suspicious activity to report should reach out to the Burns Lake RCMP detachment at 250-692-7171 or call 9-1-1 in case of emergency.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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