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Bertrand Creek cleaned up on Saturday

Langley Field Naturalists president Bob Puls moves trash from the banks of Bertrand Creek.
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Langley Field Naturalists president Bob Puls moves trash from the banks of Bertrand Creek.

On Saturday, August 27, Langley Environmental Partners Society and the Bertrand Creek Enhancement Society host a clean-up of Bertrand Creek in the area of Aldergrove Centre Mall.

This clean-up has been held each summer for nearly 20 years, the annual “Instream Clean Up”, in which participants hop into hip waders and walk in the water to remove floating and embedded trash from Bertrand Creek throughout the urban core of Aldergrove. Over the years, hundreds of tonnes of non-natural debris has been removed from the creek, including furniture, mattresses, bicycles, wood pallets, shopping carts and hundreds of garbage bags full of bags of trash.

The clean-up is a great opportunity to view this salmon-bearing creek from a whole new perspective, get a little dirty, and contribute to a cleaner, healthier community.

This year’s clean-up was not held instream, due to concerns of elevated fecal coliforms in the stream water. Although water quality can change quickly, fecal coliforms in surface water is typically introduced from human or animal waste such as failing septic systems, agricultural runoff, wildlife, and littering/illegal dumping.

As such, as a precautionary measure and to minimize potential exposure, trash was removed only from the streambanks. Work gloves and litter pickers were provided.