Cleaning Up Hillside Beach With the Woodland Mills Multilander

Keeping a Community Beautiful, One Clean Up at a Time

Tracing its roots back to 1978, the Hillside Beach Community Association (HBCA) has a simple mission for its neighbourhood along the shores of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba: protect and care for its environment.

Since 2024, HBCA members Laura Kemp and Patrick Jolicoeur have faced a seemingly never-ending battle against one of the shoreline’s biggest nuisances: the zebra mussel.

(Pile of zebra mussels on Hillside Beach)

An invasive species, zebra mussels have become known for disrupting ecosystems in many Canadian lakes over the past two decades. They can also pose a danger to beachgoers, as their sharp shells can cause painful and sometimes severe cuts to anyone who steps on them. 

At Hillside Beach, the problem is particularly noticeable. The bay has been flooded with zebra mussels, and it’s not uncommon to see as much as a two-kilometre stretch of shoreline covered in shells. 

What Was Happening Before the Multilander?

To combat the growing number of zebra mussel shells, the Hillside Beach Mussel Crew volunteer group was created to help the beach regain some of its previous beauty.

But when it comes to zebra mussels, there’s no such thing as a “one and done” cleanup. 

Wind and waves can bring new piles of shells onto the beach just hours after an area has been completely cleaned. Waves and high-water levels can also make it difficult or impossible for the HBCA to clean the beach on certain days. As a result, multiple cleanups are required throughout the summer. 

When the zebra mussel cleanups first began, the HBCA had limited funding and relied on simple equipment such as shovels, pails and rakes. 

“We were able to eventually get a permit covering personal ATVs and small, plastic ATV trailers to assist the roughly 100 community volunteers to relocate the shells to designated sites,” said Kemp. “However, the small, plastic ATV trailers were breaking under the weight of shells covered in sand. This meant the group would have to disconnect the plastic trailer from the ATV and use the muscles of at least four volunteers to tip the trailer over.” 

The process was both intensive and very time-consuming. 

Making the Switch to the Multilander

By late 2025, the HBCA knew it was time for a change. 

After upgrading its beach cleaner and the tractor used to pull it, the next step was replacing the plastic ATV trailers. 

The goal was to find a trailer that could withstand the weight of the zebra mussel shells, be pulled behind an ATV, be easy to unload and have tires capable of handling the sandy beach. 

“It was at this point we found the Woodland Mills Multilander trailer,” said Kemp. “The online videos of it in action showed it would be perfect for what we needed!” 

Two volunteers stepped up to build the two Multilander trailers the group purchased.

“Both raved about the quality of the Multilander,” said Kemp, “and how well the instructions were presented and how easy it was to assemble.” 

HBCA volunteers assembling the Multilanders

With two Multilanders in their arsenal, the HBCA had a much easier way to haul and unload zebra mussel shells at their designated dumping grounds in the meadows. 

The group uses its tractor bucket to load the shells into the trailers, while volunteers pull the trailers to the dump sites using their ATVs. 

“With the Woodland Mills Multilander tandem trailers, our use case is heavier than we initially pictured,” explained Kemp. “The trailer itself weighs 685 lb and is rated for a 2,000-lb payload, so fully loaded we could potentially be pulling about 2,685 lb. We are also doing this in sand, which adds a lot of rolling resistance.” 

The Multilanders have been able to handle the weight with ease, although the HBCA recognizes that its next objective may be finding some “beefier” ATVs capable of handling the load. 

How the Multilander Made a Noticeable Difference

The HBCA held its first cleanup of 2026 in late June. 

“The first cleanup of the year is always the hardest,” said Kemp. “The piles of shells left by the snow and ice over the winter were huge.” 

Throughout the summer, the Green Team youth cleaned the beach multiple times a week. They piled and flagged the shells above the high-water line so they would be ready for the next community cleanup, when volunteers could trailer the piles to the meadows. 

What had once been a tedious and repetitive process became much easier with the addition of the Multilander. 

“We did two more large community cleanups in 2026, and with the new Multilander trailers we could haul more shells on each trip to the meadows, making the cleanups all summer go faster than ever before,” explained Kemp. 

The difference was noticeable to the volunteers, too. 

“Volunteers would say, ‘Wow, that was fast. Are we done already?’”

The Multilander makes all variety of clean ups easy

For the HBCA, the Multilander has become more than just another piece of equipment. It has helped a dedicated group of volunteers spend less time struggling with the work and more time doing what they set out to do in the first place: keeping Hillside Beach clean, safe and beautiful for the entire community.