Yukon group tackles garbage overflow, a year after historic floods

While flood season is on the minds of many Yukoners right now, one environmental group in the territory is thinking about what's left behind. 

The Lake Laberge Renewable Resources Council decided to call on volunteers across the territory to help clean up the lakeshore. The area just north of Whitehorse was one of the hardest hit by last summer's historic flooding. 

"We've been hearing anecdotally from residents that there's been a lot more garbage," Justin Hooper, the council's co-chair, told CBC News during a beachside cleanup. 

"Just where we're situated, downstream of Whitehorse, we get a bit more of it than, say, other areas, and during a flood year just so much more of that is mobilized by the high water." 

The situation was so severe last year that the Yukon government called a state of emergency for Lake Laberge and the Southern Lakes region, and issued evacuation orders or warnings for some residents. 

Hooper, his co-chair John Lavallee and Charolette O'Donnell, cleaned up a one-kilometre section of the Laberge lakeshore Wednesday night. It didn't take any of them very long to find garbage, strewn along the rocks and in the bushes. 

"Well, we haven't gone very far and we got four tires and a chair and some bigger things to remove," Hooper said. 

The night before, Hooper found a small jug full of oil, which he said could have caused a small spill in the lake. 

Lavallee, the council's other co-chair, grew up in a house along the lakeshore. In recent years, his mom moved the house to higher ground to avoid any flood damage. 

Lavallee, a citizen of both the Ta'an K'wäch'än Council and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation, said it's "upsetting" to see so much garbage on the lakeshore because it's important to protect the wildlife for future generations. 

"You know one day I'm going to have grandkids and I want to be able to show them how to fish salmon, fillet and eat it through the winter," Lavallee said. 

Lavallee and Hooper are asking the public to keep waste in mind during the flood season. 

"I would ask people to think about, once … their properties are as protected as they can be, to move some of that potentially floating garbage from their lawns," Hooper said. 

The council is looking for volunteers to help their cleanup effort. People can choose a section of the lake they want to clean, fill out an intake form and document what they find.