Ranchers in 108 Mile Ranch and Lac La Hache are crying foul over garbage dumping and illegal ATV usage on their private property.
A combination of chronic garbage dumping and ATV usage has been described as showing disrespect for the ranchers of the South Cariboo. Although it may not be an everyday occurrence, it is frequent enough that ranchers like Cheryl Monical, who owns several thousand acres and leases in the Timothy Lake Road area, are growing frustrated. Cheryl stated that sometimes people simply back their vehicles up and dump their refuse.
“Whether it’s on range land, or on private, like they’ll go up Hickling Road onto private property, out of sight and just unload their garbage,” Cheryl explained.
There are several Cariboo Regional District-operated transfer stations and landfills in the South Cariboo including one in Forest Grove, Lac La Hache and Lone Butte, as well as landfills in Watch Lake and the Interlakes. However, that has seemingly not stopped people from dumping garbage on private property.
Marvin Monical, another rancher based out of Lac La Hache, said he has seen refrigerators being dumped on Blue Goose Cattle Company property.
“There was little area back in there, that was years ago that I’ve seen that problem - whether it’s been cleaned up since or not, I do not know, I haven’t been back on that property,” Marvin remarked.
Marvin said that large items like refrigerators often get dumped thanks to a commercial tipping fee that is based on weight, which leads to people often finding it easier to dump it on private property. However, Marvin noted that it creates a potential hazard for wildlife.
“A bear could crawl into a deep freeze and somehow get the lid closed on himself," Marvin explained. "You know, just because that's what bears do."
Al Richmond, the Director for Electoral Area G with the Cariboo Regional District (CRD), stated that there have been cases where other materials - not just fridges have been dumped illegally - on land that the CRD owns.
"We have people who regularly will dump garden wastes, some different things on different pieces of property we own and we have to endeavour to go after them," Richmond said.
Murray Booth, a BC Conservation officer working out of 100 Mile House, said that "garbage begets garbage" - and noted that the consequences of illegal dumping include "potential damage to the environment or fish and wildlife habitat, public safety if scavengers/predators are attracted, growing piles of garbage on the land."
Richmond stated that there are benefits for people to put their garbage in the transfer stations, including that the garbage is often able to be recycled.
“The fridges, the stoves, the metal is all taken out once a year - the contractor comes in and compresses all of the material and they trucked it all out. It’s all recycled out of Vancouver for metal recycling,” Richmond explained.
Cheryl said that the current situation, however, is appalling.
“You don’t need to find somebody’s household garbage mattresses, old broken toys, out on your grassland or in your trees,” Monical said.
Cheryl reiterated that the garbage being dumped indicates a lack of respect for ranchers overall, and has tied it to her complaints with ATVs destroying land around the 108 Heritage Site.
“The ATVs and the side-by-sides and the motorcycles that are currently being used rip up the land, and you can see the evidence right across from the 108 Heritage Site - they’ve made roads where there was no road,” Cheryl said.
Similar sentiments have been echoed by Marvin, who says that those not from the Cariboo region usually are responsible.
“It’s the ones that come up for the long weekend. They think all of this, all this country up there is just open for them to recreate on, which is not true because they do not know about private property and Crown land," Marvin said. "They don’t know the difference. They think it’s all open to them.”
Cheryl feels “frustrated and disrespected” by the combination of garbage dumping and unauthorized ATV usage, saying that they have to look after the land, and without it, they do not have any livelihood.
“I mean you are driving a herd of cows around and all of a sudden 10 quads come down the trail - there’s no - they have no cost. They have no investment out there. And it's a big investment to ranchers to have this land," Cheryl said.
Richmond said that the CRD does not currently have any bylaw regarding dumping on private property, and they have told the ranchers that the best course of action is to call the BC Ministry of Environment.
The BC Ministry of Environment has its own program called “Report All Poachers and Polluters” (RAPP), which states that illegal waste disposal is one of several environmental violations that should be reported. The website instructs those reporting the incident to document observations as soon as possible, as well as what the suspects look like, details of the violation, transport involved as well as witness information. The RAPP hotline is 1-877-952-7277 and is toll-free throughout British Columbia.
Booth said that the B.C. Conservation Service has not received any reports of illegal dumping or of ATV use or incidents in the 108 Mile Ranch recently. However, Booth said that dumping on Crown land in particular may violate certain sections of the Environmental Management Act, but driving an ATV on it doesn't.
"It is legal to operate an ATV on Crown land as long as it is registered," Booth wrote in an e-mail to the Free Press.
Richmond said that if this situation continues, ranchers might have to take matters into their own hands.
“The ranchers are becoming more angry about the devastation to the land, and they’ll begin to restrict access and that will play out however it does, or hopefully people become more respectful.”
