Dear Editor,

It has been a while since the public has been updated on the episode of the locked gate on a public road at Minnie Lake. Douglas Lake Cattle Company has a gate of that public road and have locked the gate to keep the public from using the Stoney Lake Road #281 on the road register of B.C.

The road is listed in the public road inventory that the highways contractor is required to maintain and yet Douglas Lake Cattle Company has maintained a locked gate there along with no trespassing signs for some time. It is listed in the road features inventory as a class seven public road requiring maintenance.

We have heard from a representative of the Ministry of Transportation who said it is not a public road but at the same time he is paying VSA to maintain it as a public road.

The Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club has gone to the RCMP and to the Conservation Officer Service and asked that charges be laid and that the locked gate be removed from a public road. They have not yet done anything and it has been a year or more now since the formal request went to these agencies and we have not even had the courtesy of a reply.

This is what the Wildlife Act says:

Section 80: A person commits an offence if the person interferes with or obstructs a person licensed or permitted to capture wildlife or to hunt, fish, guide or trap while that person is lawfully so engaged.

That gate and those signs are interfering with anyone who wants to fish one of the public lakes. Nothing has changed. Neither of those agencies have officially gotten back to the club and advised them if there were charges pending or why there are not.

Let’s try once more: Hello law enforcement, where are you when we need you? There is a locked gate on the public road called the Stoney Lake Road. Why are you ignoring us? We have already supplied you with all the evidence you need to lay charges. Do something; do your job. Please and thank you.

Now do we sit and wait some more? More people need to show they care on the issue to get a quicker response, I think. Write letters, rattle chains, let the government know that we still need our lakes and we don’t want them to give them (the lakes) away to a billionaire in Missouri. Demand some action.

Ed Hendricks

Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club committee

Merritt, B.C.