As an individual living in our society, a squatter probably puts out far less waste, and much less of an impact to the environment than the average person living in a single family home.
The problem of having squats in Squamish River Estuary is the proximity of that waste, and impact to the sensitive ecosystems that support fish and wildlife. Take this camp that we recently removed from an Island in the middle of the river. We removed a total of seven cargo canoe loads of garbage, including three gallons of kerosene from the old camp. Had that not being addressed at this time, the snowmelt would have cause the river to rise and all of that material would have ended up in our oceans.
The toxic effects of the fuel oil onto the environment is quite obvious, but what is not so obvious to people is the effects of plastic.
Plastic, in the form of tarps, boxes, bottles, toys, bags, can be lethal to many marine mammals and organisms. If a tarp, or plastic bottle for instance were to escape into the waterways, it will eventually be broken up into a million little bits. This all eventually ends up in the great Pacific Ocean Trash Vortex, which is estimated to contain upwards of 100,000 tonnes of plastic.
An estimated 100,000 marine mammals die from eating plastic in the Pacific Northwest alone - 98 percent of dead seabirds have plastic in their stomachs. People may also ingest microscopic pieces of plastic when eating fish.
A few things to think about the next time you walk pass a piece of trash.
John Buchanan
Squamish
