Talon Lowton, 8, (right) presents a couple of his Osoyoos Butt Bottles to Sgt. Jason Bayda, the commanding officer of the Osoyoos RCMP Detachment. (Richard McGuire photo)

He only just turned eight a couple weeks ago, but Talon Lowton has launched an initiative to prevent wildfires.

Lowton showed up Tuesday at the Osoyoos RCMP Detachment to present Sgt. Jason Bayda with several “Osoyoos Butt Bottles,” which he is also distributing to others in the community.

They are small plastic bottles partially filled with water and with a label that Lowton writes individually by hand. The idea is that smokers can put their cigarette butts in the bottle instead of tossing them out their car window and starting a wildfire.

“I just thought about smoking and then how people would throw them out the window,” Lowton explained. “And before they know it, there is a huge fire and when it gets windy it’s even worse because an ash could fall and it could blow into another dry spot and that causes a fire. Right now there’s a bunch of forest fires.”

Lowton said he came up with the idea himself, but he’s been working with his grandmother, Elaine Taylor, who has been helping him obtain bottles and distribute the finished “Osoyoos Butt Bottles.”

Sgt. Bayda was impressed that an eight-year-old boy would come up with this idea, especially when RCMP regularly see adults tossing butts from car windows.

“I thought what a cool thing for a kid this young to be thinking about with everything that’s going on with the forest fires right now all over the province and elsewhere,” said Bayda. “Education is a big thing, especially with people throwing cigarette butts out the window. The police are seeing it everywhere, the public’s seeing it everywhere and people still aren’t getting the picture.”

Lowton is especially concerned about wildfires because his mother’s parents were caught up in the Sidley Mountain fires two years ago and had to evacuate.

Although that particular fire came across the border from Washington State, it occurred at the same time as the nearby Rock Creek fire, which is believed to have been caused by a motorist tossing a cigarette butt.

Taylor, who is Lowton’s grandmother on his father’s side, says those fires left an impression on her grandson.

“He was pretty scared after that Rock Creek fire and I don’t think that’s really ever left him,” she said. “He talks about it quite a bit.”

A problem, she said, is that automakers since the early 2000s have been discontinuing ashtrays in vehicles, and this leading smokers to toss butts from windows.

“Talon asked if they don’t even butt them out and I said, ‘No they don’t. They just throw them out the window,’” Taylor said. “And he said, ‘Well that’s just wrong.’ He said there has to be something that they can put in their car, even like a bottle of water. That’s how it got started.”

Although Lowton came up with the idea himself, Taylor said she’s taught him that if there’s a problem, you need to think of a solution for it.

Lowton has delivered Butt Bottles to the Osoyoos Times, RCMP, Osoyoos Fire Department, Town of Osoyoos, campgrounds and elsewhere in Osoyoos along with a handwritten message asking people to use them.

“Keep it in your car or trunk and use it!” he wrote. “We don’t need any more fires started by people … we have lightning doing that.”

Taylor tells how Lowton and his father were recently headed up Anarchist Mountain on a camping trip when they saw a motorist toss a cigarette butt from his truck ahead of them.

“Talon was so upset,” said Taylor. “He said, ‘Dad, catch up to him. We have to get his license plate.’”

Then it struck the boy that unfortunately he didn’t have any Butt Bottles with him to give the driver.

“He made his dad turn around and come back and check where the cigarette had gone,” said Taylor. “He’s really concerned about it.”

Taylor said she’s told her grandson that if he can keep one person from throwing their cigarette butt out the window, he’s accomplished something.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times