Hello to all! I hope everyone is doing well.
I have been in contact with the Ministry regarding unauthorized gates being installed on forestry service roads. The backstory for us here is that returning from a weekend trip last year, my wife and I found ourselves locked behind a newly installed gate.
After some hours of being stuck, a local falsely claiming to be a BC Hydro representative opened the gate for us. It was quite obvious that it was not a BC Hydro gate and he was not a BC Hydro representative. I later confirmed that with BC Hydro.
BC Hydro did some investigating of their own and were advised by the locals that the gate was to protect the land during fire season. It has remained closed since and we are no longer to access a large amount of land / roads for hunting, camping or even to retrieve our trail cameras.
I spoke with a Ministry (Forests) representative who confirmed there are an increasing number of gates being installed in different areas which are not authorized by them. They also confirmed my suspicion the reason for these gates is to prevent hunters from entering these areas. He stated (and I might be paraphrasing) that they are unable to remove the gates because of the controversy it would cause. He indicated the issue at hand is very political and goes all the way to the top levels of government. The best (and maybe only?) course of action is to write our MLA's.
The increasing loss of access to outdoor recreation for hunters, hikers, anglers, campers, etc, should be a very big deal to most, just as the executive branch of government undermining the legislative branch and enforcement, dictating which laws will be enforced or ignored depending on who is involved should be very concerning to anyone. Blocking a road and interfering with hunting activity are both unlawful.
The purpose of this post is to try to determine the scope of impact to outdoor users. I will be looking for feedback from similar groups (anglers, hikers, 4x4 groups, etc) to be able to organize efforts such as writing letters to or in person meetings with MLA's, media contact, messaging, etc.
I have created an email address EqualWildernessAccess@gmail.com (for now) to gather information from anyone who is interested. I might also start a mailing list or other platform at a later time. For now, what I am looking for is:
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Name:
Email:
Are you concerned with unauthorized gates restricting access to the back country:
Have you encountered or been affected by unauthorized gate(s)? (Note: You do not need to specify the location of the gate(s), but if you do it will be helpful)
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None of the above information will be shared with anyone but rather data such as "How many unauthorized gates", "How many outdoor users are being affected", "hectares of access restricted". If there is ever a reason / benefit to share further information, I will reach out and request your permission first.
If anyone else has some constructive ideas, suggestions, etc, please do chime in. I do ask that we keep the thread civil. How we conduct ourselves is vital for the future of hunting and back country access in general. If we act in a manner that shuts down our own conversations, we can will not gain any traction. If that should happen, perhaps the mod's would be able to turn off comments and make it sticky thread for a period of time.
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