By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Osoyoos Council has unanimously agreed to a request from the BC Ministry of Forests for approval to install a gate at the access point to Crown Land at the corner of Fairwinds Drive and Augusta Lane in the Dividend Ridge subdivision.
While the access point is used by many local residents for various recreational activities, the area has for a number of years been used by people camping in tents, trailers and motorhomes often resulting in abandoned equipment and garbage with the ongoing housing crisis simply exacerbating the problem.
In a report to council Marg Coulson, Director of Corporate Services noted the Ministry and the Town of Osoyoos have received numerous complaints about unauthorized use of the undeveloped Crown Lands that lay to the south and west of Dividend Ridge.
The Crown Land is accessible from two main points – the Dividend Ridge subdivision (bottom) and Strawberry Creek Road (top).
Town of Osoyoos map.
Coulson added that the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB) has also expressed concerns regarding the unauthorized use of the Crown Land with the town administration recommending that the Town of Osoyoos invite the OIB to jointly support the Ministry of Forests’ proposal to protect the sensitive area.
“There have been many concerns and comments from residents regarding . . . squatters in some of the environmentally sensitive areas west of the golf course,” said Osoyoos CAO Rod Risling at the Sept. 10 council meeting.
“We received a request from residents as well as BC Forestry to put up a gate to deter the squatters that are there. From an administrative perspective, we support this. We do have concerns, however, that once this gate goes up the people will move 100 feet to the north,” he said in reference to access from Strawberry Creek Road.
“We think this is a good first step, but believe that there should be additional consideration to address the issue of which we believe it is going to move further north.” In recommending that council support the Forestry Ministry’s request Risling suggested there should be an emphasis on three issues in the letter of support.
This includes highlighting the potential for the squatters to move north to the Strawberry Creek area, the potential to work with the Osoyoos Indian Band as a united front and thirdly to ask the Ministry to consider options for restricting access to Crown Land from the Strawberry Creek Road.
Councillor Johnny Cheong raised the point that the area is “very well used for recreation,” and asked if the gate would be open at certain times or would it be completely closed.
The issue of squatters camping on Crown Land has been exacerbated by the housing crisis. Brandi Moore photo.
In response Risling said: “I believe it is going to be a permanently installed gate that’s going to be designed to limit traffic – trucks, motorhomes, campers, that type of thing. So as far as bikes go, I think they’ll still have access.”
Mayor Sue McKortoff weighed in saying, “I think it’s mainly the campers and the motor homes that are going up there and people living there that is the concern. But perhaps we could put it in the letter.”
Councilor Jim King moved a motion to provide the letter of support as suggested by town staff, but without any additional requests or suggestions as had been suggested by his colleagues. Councillor Zach Poturica seconded the motion but before a vote was taken Cheong raised another issue.
“If the intent is really to prevent additional squatters from using or accessing the Crown Land, I just want to make sure that we do make a comment that the gate is secure enough because a chain and a lock is not going to really be a deterrent for anyone who’s going to defy law and that regard.
“So I do want to make it abundantly clear to the ministry that this gate needs to be quite ‘beefy’,” he said to chuckles from those in the council chamber.
“I think the RCMP have worked with conservation officers and so on, and I think they’ve really looked into this quite carefully,” McKortoff replied. “And I think we can sort of assume, I hope, that they’re looking at it. They don’t want to have to go replace it.”
Risling also added that ATVs and dirt bikes for instance are not allowed in that ecologically sensitive area but that often people “find a way” to circumvent such obstacles.
He added that “actually moving all those people is fairly costly, so I would make that assumption that they’re going to invest in this hopefully preventative measure, again, to reduce the cost of cleanup and that type of thing.”
The issue of cleaning up the mess was also highlighted on local social media with local resident Brandi Moore organizing an informal cleanup this weekend.
That cleanup has been postponed after Moore was contacted by what she said was a “public official” who asked her to hold off until the end of the month as the squatters/campers/RVs on the Crown Land have been given until the end of the month to vacate or they will be removed.
She was also told that a professional company was coming in to do a cleanup in the area and haul out any of the campers/RVs that are left behind once the deadline passed. The Times Chronicle is awaiting confirmation of this.
Moore says she goes up to the area daily with her kids and dogs. “I keep garbage bags in my truck for the sole purpose that I know we will find a mess somewhere up there so we fill a couple every time we go up there.”
She does have concerns – likely shared by many of the recreationists using the area – that a gate will make it difficult to enjoy the same degree of access as currently exists.
“We are hoping that this doesn’t stop the locals that have been going up since kids and now our kids as well from enjoying it. We treat the area as our own backyards.”
She suggests a possible option would be to have the area partially controlled.”Maybe close the gate at night so we can still have access for hiking, walking, 4x4ing, quadding and dirt biking during the day. It would be a shame to see this closed off to us who care for the area and use it daily due to others’ neglect.”
The bottom line she says is that “we need to do whatever it takes to keep it accessible for all of us. There’s got to be another solution than locking it up for good, even just locking it through the night or something is a good start,” she added.
If nothing results from the deadline given to those living on Crown Land and subsequent cleanup Moore says the local cleanup will proceed on Oct. 8 at 10 a.m.
Access to the area will likely change down the road as a result of the ongoing labyrinth process to establish a national park reserve on Mount Kruger, although that is still years away.
