 Province
to pay for unmaintained forest campsites
June 13th 2003
By Judie Steeves, staff reporter
(Capital News file)
The provincial Ministry of Forests has come up with money
to maintain forest campsitesacross B.C. that do not have volunteer
groups to look after them.
Funds were allotted this week by the provincial government to provide
basic maintenance for forest service recreation sites where no volunteer
has come forward to maintain them.
Since the Ministry of Forests decided last year to drop recreation
from its budget, it has been casting about trying to find some means
of maintaining the network of more than 1,200 such wilderness sites
in the province, without paying out any money.
While about 50 sites in the province are designated as enhanced
sites, where a fee of $10 a night can be charged, most are primitive
sites with minimal facilities such as a picnic tables and fire rings.
Advertisements by the ministry to encourage volunteers to agree
to maintain the sites ran more than once this winter and spring,
but few offers resulted.
Ted McRae, now charged with managing the sites in the new Okanagan-Shuswap
forest district, says $450,000 of the $880,000 allotted by the province
for basic maintenance will come to the Southern Interior.
That will pay for outhouses to be pumped out and some basic repairs
to the user-maintained sites to ensure they’re safe.
So far, he said they haven’t needed to pump out any outhouses,
but as the season gets underway that will be important, he said.
One problem the ministry’s had to deal with so far has been
the damage as a result of grad parties, with broken picnic tables
and other vandalism.
“Even one of the sites maintained by volunteers has had outhouses
smashed up,” McRae commented sadly.
With other sites, user-maintenance works fine. People pack out
what they pack in, and look after the sites, he said.
He has had calls from people complaining about having to pay fees,
but he’s also had calls from people about the condition of
sites which are user-maintained.
In all, there are a total of 140 sites, for which he now has 21
signed agreements for maintenance, where a user-fee will be charged.
At a further 14 sites there are signed maintenance agreements but
no user fee, and the remainder are user-maintained.
However, McRae said he is negotiating for contracts for a further
38 sites.
Twelve of the 14 sites will be maintained by the Okanagan Mental
Health Services Society, which hopes to employ two to four people
with mental health issues such as depression, to maintain the camp
sites.
Cathy Parmenter, vocational rehabilitation counselor for the society,
had been looking for funding a month ago to pay those people minimum
wages to do the work. She could not be reached for comment.
That contract includes MacDonald, Brenda, Peachland, Headwaters,
Silver, Crescent, Whitehead, Thirsk, Isintok, Trout, Browne and
James Lakes.
McRae said a looming problem will be access to some of the sites
as the forest service roads begin to deteriorate. They are no longer
maintained unless the forest industry is using them to access logging
operations.
The ministry is studying that problem, he said, and has put such
roads up for maintenance contracts too, similar to the recreation
sites.
The hope is that in instances where they access contracted sites,
those contractors may want to ensure access is maintained.
That’s an issue that has EarthCare policy advisor Lloyd Manchester
up in arms.
“The sites may be useable but you can’t get to them.
Probably 80 per cent of the sites in the Okanagan are accessed by
Forest Service Roads.
“We’re concerned that when the roads deteriorate there’ll
be environmental damage and human safety will become an issue,”
he said.
“Ultimately, the decision will have a negative impact on
tourism and eco-tourism,” he added.
He estimated it would cost $750,000 annually to maintain the roads
for the whole province.
Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park is a good example of a site accessed
by two forest service roads.
The province has refused to maintain the road to the park, even
though they bring in an estimated $5 million in tourism revenue
from the 40,000 people who use that section of the Trans Canada
Trail every year.
Manchester advises people to telephone, fax or e-mail the premier,
minister of forests, minister of water, land and air protection,
or your local MLA if you disagree with their stance.
Visit EarthCare’s Web site at www.earthcares.org to make
your views known to the group.
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