I have spent my life in the woods and mountains and encouraged my children to learn and love the B.C. wilderness as my father taught me.
We enjoyed a family walk with our dogs Christmas Day up Baerg Creek Forestry Road adjacent to MacDonald Provincial Park Nakusp and returned again Boxing Day.
I have never encountered an active trap line without warning and thus unprepared, lost my faithful companion of 10 and half years, our yellow Labrador Nikki. We live with the sad image of prying her dead body out of the trap and while I fall asleep, I am awakened by her desperate cries to survive.
I urge you to lobby your MLA to legislate mandatory adequate signage and location of active trap lines considering proximity to MacDonald Provincial Park Nakusp and other publicly accessed areas.
I was raised to believe that Crown Land is for us all not solely for loggers, hunters and trappers and that access is a right that each of us ensures through our taxes. As Nakusp, the Region and Province of B.C. search for promotional strategies to draw tourism, recreation and business, careful consideration needs to be given to priorities of all land use.
Continuing to do things the way they have always been done will ensure the same or similar results. Revitalizing an area will entail new and dynamic ways of thinking, living and conservation; it is paramount that we all work together to this end.
Brenda Hoyle-Szabo
Nakusp, B.C.