Scores of American softball players camped illegally in the Takhini North greenbelt over the weekend.

Coinciding with the city's annual Dustball tournament, a number of vehicles with Alaska licence plates, including tour operator Chilkat Guides, were parked on roads and trails which snake through Takhini North's greenbelt.

Along with the vehicles, scores of tents adorned with baseball gear mushroomed up in the greenbelt, with dustballers playing baseball by day and partying by night through the weekend.

The international Dustball tournament, according to Softball Yukon, ran from last Thursday through Sunday at the Takhini Softball Complex and the Robert Service Ball Park.

In an interview this morning, Dave Pruden, the city's senior bylaw constable, said his office didn't receive any complaints about the campers this year, but has in previous years.

'I guess the problem is, nobody called us about it. If we don't receive a complaint, we don't go out there,' he said.

Camping in greenbelts, Pruden added, is illegal in the City of Whitehorse.

'There's is only camping allowed within designated areas in the city,' he said.

The fine for camping illegally, he added, is $75 per offence.

Linda Rapp, the city's parks manager, said this morning she hadn't been made aware of the illegal campers either.

However, she does feel that having visitors camp illegally is not a desirable thing for the city, she said.

'It's something that's a problem for us,' she said.

'We end up using resources that could be better directed elsewhere,' she added.

When the parks department has to clean up garbage from greenbelts, she explained, it costs city ratepayers money.

Rapp said she will encourage area residents to lodge an official complaint with the city if they see illegal camping and will urge organizers to ensure that people attending events in the city camped in designated areas.

'I would encourage people organizing these kinds of things to start promoting the designated camping areas in the city,' she said.

Mac Hislop, a Takhini North Community Association spokesperson, said while Takhini-area residents are happy the Dustball tournament is held in Whitehorse and feel it is good for the city, they don't appreciate people camping in their backyard.

'This has been happening (for) a number of years,' Hislop said.

'We're happy to see people using the area, but camping is not an appropriate land use for that area,' he said.

A campfire spotted in the greenbelt a few nights ago was also troubling.

Hislop said while he's not sure what, if anything, has been left behind this year by the offending campers, in previous years, residents did see a number of undesirable things left behind.

'In the last years, we've seen garbage and human waste left behind,' he said. 'It's a problem.'

Hislop said the associaton sent an e-mail to Softball Yukon, which helped organize the event, last year on the same issue but never received a response.

'They never got back to us,' he said.

Softball Yukon members could not be reached for comment today.