Sumas Mountain Hunting

[Stéphane]

Today I was on Sumas Mt looking scouting for BT and maybe find a big black bear. Found both, but the ladder saw me and bolted into the brushes before I had time to draw my bow. Anyhow, I end up on the gravel road to see if he'd come that way when a truck from Vancouver Park and Rec(VPR) drives by me and stops.
Pleasant guy, but the message wasn't so much. Apparently, where I was, it belongs to VPR and no hunting is allowed.
According to the guy, it was always a part of the park where I was, but not maintained, so hunting was tolerated. Since they're maintaining it now, no more hunting. He said they have cameras to catch guys hunting. . . no so sure about that. Anyway, the signs are coming, he says.
I wasn't going to argue, all I needed to do was going back and recheck the map. Sigh. Have you seen how difficult it is to figure out where the parks limits are?
So, please, give us a map we can work with, that's all I ask really.

[Steeleco]

Here Here! The same can be said of the entire province and the shitty maps they provide for us in order to follow the rules!

[r106]

Tagged for interest

[Singleshotneeded]

They love the fact that the maps are poor...anything to dish out some tickets and make some money off the working guy! One of the best ones is if some hippie builds a cabin up a logging road and has the logging road cleared of snow in winter, it becomes a road that you can't shoot game on anymore. So if you see a deer and shoot it, and the hippie sees and reports you or a warden turns up, you've got a nice fat ticket! And the hippie doesn't need to post a sign or anything, so you have no way of knowing! Total cash stealing scam by the government....but don't steal yourself, they hate competition! :-)

[shortrange]

Like on Mamquam River FSR. I was there looking for bears and saw signs in the middle of nowhere saying "Entering Squamish" and "Leaving Squamish". Doh!

I did see one hippie....

[Bubba123]

Vancouver Parks and Rec up on Sumas Mountain? It's not even part of Metro Van (the old GVRD). I call BS. I think maybe that clown lives up there and is an anti...

[mike-juliet]

You know there might just be some truth to this, I was a member at Ridgedale last year, before I left due to all the assholes. Anyways they had to reroute one of the 3D courses to stay out of the recently changed park boundary. I have a hard time believing that it encompasses all of Sumas mountain though.

[Mikey Rafiki]

They love the fact that the maps are poor...anything to dish out some tickets and make some money off the working guy! One of the best ones is if some hippie builds a cabin up a logging road and has the logging road cleared of snow in winter, it becomes a road that you can't shoot game on anymore. So if you see a deer and shoot it, and the hippie sees and reports you or a warden turns up, you've got a nice fat ticket! And the hippie doesn't need to post a sign or anything, so you have no way of knowing! Total cash stealing scam by the government....but don't steal yourself, they hate competition! :-)

That's only if it's maintained by the province, and the hippie has to own the land that the dwelling is on in order for the road to be brought into the maintenance inventory, thus making it a highway, not a logging road.

[boxhitch]

All the maps are available on either the city or regional district websites .

[Singleshotneeded]

That's only if it's maintained by the province, and the hippie has to own the land that the dwelling is on in order for the road to be brought into the maintenance inventory, thus making it a highway, not a logging road.

That's right, but to me a highway is paved and is boldly marked on a BC map...and everyone knows you have to be 400M from the centre line in order to fire a gun. Simple. The roads I'm referring to are still marked as FSR's, have km markers on trees, are bloody gravel roads, and are NOT marked as having any special status...no signs...nothing. They look like any other logging road and no one would think twice about shooting a nice buck if they came across one on the gravel road...but that could cost them a multi hundred dollar fine and it's BS. If some hippie decides to buy a chunk of land up a logging road and petition the province to clear the snow in winter, then he should be legally obligated to post a nice big sign stating that this is a "highway" and you cannot fire a gun from it, at the beginning of the road. No true hunter has any issue with obeying the law and regs, but we need to know them first! We read the hunting regs so we know the rules, and Moonbeam the Hippie needs to post a nice big sign on the logging road he ruined by settling on it so we know that it isn't just another logging road like the thousands of other ones in BC! Anything else is entrapment and wrong!

[boxhitch]

everyone knows you have to be 400M from the centre line in order to fire a gunwrong

that could cost them a multi hundred dollar fine threats of fines and what stands up in court are two different things

If some hippie decides to buy a chunk of land up a logging road and petition the province to clear the snow in winterClearly there is more to that side of the story . Why would they maintain a road for a single property , no matter who owns it ? Is the road 'gazetted' , does it have a street name ?

[835]

That's right, but to me a highway is paved and is boldly marked on a BC map...and everyone knows you have to be 400M from the centre line in order to fire a gun. Simple. !

not in all cases.. page 13

[Mikey Rafiki]

That's right, but to me a highway is paved and is boldly marked on a BC map...and everyone knows you have to be 400M from the centre line in order to fire a gun. Simple. The roads I'm referring to are still marked as FSR's, have km markers on trees, are bloody gravel roads, and are NOT marked as having any special status...no signs...nothing. They look like any other logging road and no one would think twice about shooting a nice buck if they came across one on the gravel road...but that could cost them a multi hundred dollar fine and it's BS. If some hippie decides to buy a chunk of land up a logging road and petition the province to clear the snow in winter, then he should be legally obligated to post a nice big sign stating that this is a "highway" and you cannot fire a gun from it, at the beginning of the road. No true hunter has any issue with obeying the law and regs, but we need to know them first! We read the hunting regs so we know the rules, and Moonbeam the Hippie needs to post a nice big sign on the logging road he ruined by settling on it so we know that it isn't just another logging road like the thousands of other ones in BC! Anything else is entrapment and wrong!

I agree that it's an extremely tough regulation to be on top of since the appearance of the road doesn't always change when you go from "highway" to FSR, especially if there is a logging outfit that has a permit to maintain both. Fortunately I have a nice 200 page binder that shows the names and kilometers of all provincially maintained roads in the East Kootenays including where "maintenance" starts and ends. In order to bring the road into the maintenance inventory the property owner typically has to shell out some money to upgrade the road to a maintainable standard, unless it's already a very well constructed road, but like all things that involve the government I have seen some exceptions. And yes, the road does have to be a dedicated right of way, or a "Section 42" road, which get's messy if you've been paying attention to a lot of these land access disputes.

[Mauser98]

not in all cases.. page 13

^^

"....everyone knows"?? Not so much.

The below information doesn't apply to FSR's because they aren't public roads in the same sense as public roads that are maintained by MOTH.


Highway No Shooting Areas


It is unlawful to discharge a firearm acrossor to discharge a firearm or hunt within theroad allowances of all numbered highwaysand any two lane or greater public road in BC that is maintained by the Ministry ofTransportation (or their Contractors), thefederal government or another province orterritory.The road allowance extends:
(a) 15 metres on either side of the middleof a road with less than three lanes, or
(b) 15 metres from the edge of the pavedsurface of a highway with three lanes ormore, or
(c) to the boundary of private or cultivatedland, whichever comes first.


In addition to the above universal restric-tion, several major or heavily populatedroutes in the province have an additional400 m area bordering the road allowancein which the discharge of a firearm using asingle projectile is prohibited.The dischargeof a shotgun using shot only is permitted.These areas are listed in the section “400 mSingle Projectile Prohibited Areas”.

[DDD]

"Vancouver Parks and Rec up on Sumas Mountain? It's not even part of Metro Van (the old GVRD). I call BS. I think maybe that clown lives up there and is an anti..."

Sumas Mnt is an Interrregional Park managed by both Metro Vancouver, and the Fraser Valley Regional District. Hunting is not permitted within the park and the Province goes a step further in prohibiting hunting within 100m of any regional park.

[Singleshotneeded]

By highway I was thinking about and referring to busy highways like the Coq and 401...400 metres no rifle shooting on either side.
Yes, rural "highways" takes that down to 15 metres... The point I was trying to make is that there are several gravel logging roads in BC that have logging road signs at the beginning, km. markers, and absolutely no sign saying that the BC government clears them of snow in the winter, so you can't stop your truck and shoot game on them...you have to be 15M off the centre line. Just like M R also said...how many of us have those nice 200 page binders for each region showing the gravel roads that are maintained? Very few. I was saying that it's absolute BS that there isn't a large sign on them letting hunters know they're provincially maintained...and if there isn't a sign, then hunters shouldn't be ticketed for shooting on them, since they look just like regular FSRs in most cases. Enough said. :-)

[Stéphane]

"Vancouver Parks and Rec up on Sumas Mountain? It's not even part of Metro Van (the old GVRD). I call BS. I think maybe that clown lives up there and is an anti..."

Sumas Mnt is an Interrregional Park managed by both Metro Vancouver, and the Fraser Valley Regional District. Hunting is not permitted within the park and the Province goes a step further in prohibiting hunting within 100m of any regional park.

That's it, exactly. I am not disputing that in any way shape or form. Just trying to pick a place where I can do it legally without fear of crossing a park border. On the map, Lower Sumas Rd stops at Straiton. But in reality, it goes around, connect Batt rd and returns to the lower land on the other side. All of them are missing. so, it is a huge game of figuring out where the limits are. But I think I found a spot. I'll check it out next strike day.

SG

[Gun Dog]

My (out of date 2007) Fraser Valley Special Area Hunting map shows all of Sumas Mountain as "Discharge of Firearms prohibited by other agencies and institutions". It also shows the boundary of the regional district park which is a patchwork of areas and not very useful if you're on the ground figuring out if you're in a park or not.

[Wild one]

With the increase in park size and the amount of development on Sumas Mountain it has become a pain to hunt. Personally I would say you are better off looking at other areas to bow hunt. I won't hunt there anymore and it is a short drive for me

[Bubba123]

"Vancouver Parks and Rec up on Sumas Mountain? It's not even part of Metro Van (the old GVRD). I call BS. I think maybe that clown lives up there and is an anti..."

Sumas Mnt is an Interrregional Park managed by both Metro Vancouver, and the Fraser Valley Regional District. Hunting is not permitted within the park and the Province goes a step further in prohibiting hunting within 100m of any regional park.

I stand corrected...Thank you sir.