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This is the Life: Creston wildlife area blockages a barrier to support

I spent a very pleasant afternoon last week, driving in the Duck Lake area in the company of Gord Ogilvie...
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The Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area

I spent a very pleasant afternoon last week, driving in the Duck Lake area in the company of Gord Ogilvie. More about that later but, first, an explanation is in order.

Last month I reported on a presentation made to Creston town council by Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area (CVWMA) chief executive officer Richard Dalon, who was working on the principle that the best defence is a good offence, making sure he got his side of the story to council, which provides some funding to the CVWMA and has always been a strong supporter.

The story? A couple who live on Lower Wynndel Road, Gord and Barb Ogilvie, had been a circulating a petition in response to a number of barricades put in place by the CVWMA. The petitioners argue that the blockages are unnecessary and arbitrarily restrict access that local residents and visitors have always enjoyed in the Duck Lake area.

Dalon’s presentation, which included a map locating each of five blocks to restrict vehicle traffic, seemed very reasonable.

“Everyone has 24-hour-a-day access to all areas,” my story quoted him as saying. “Some vehicle access has been restricted, especially to dikes, which are not roads.”

Dikes, Dalon said, are meant to hold back water and not to bear the weight of regular traffic. Restricting vehicle access, he said, was undertaken to maintain the integrity of the dike system, to reduce opportunities for the illegal dumping of trash and to reduce easy access for marijuana growers.

Opening the dikes for duck hunting season “isn’t fair to everyone”, he said, implying that the Ogilvies had made that request.

After I ran the story, I was contacted by the Ogilvies to see if we would accept a letter to the editor to explain their concerns. Of course, I said. When I received that letter it became apparent to me that the issue was worthy of further investigation. I asked to meet with them, then followed up with a request for a bit of a tour so that I could get a first-hand view of the blockades and where they were located.

I am glad I did, for several reasons, not least of all because I got to know a man who reminds me of the men in the family I married into. Hard-working farmers don’t tend to make mountains out of molehills and they rarely get into a snit just because something doesn’t go their way. But when they believe there is a wrong they are extremely tenacious in trying to right it.

So there we were, on a mild afternoon, touring around the muddy roads, checking out the access restrictions. Walks along areas that are now banned to vehicles were revealing, at least to someone who isn’t an engineer or road construction expert. I didn’t see evidence that vehicles were damaging the dikes, and I shouldn’t have been surprised. They have been open to public use for decades, until recently.

Where I did see erosion, particularly of riverbanks, the cause seemed to have been cattle that are grazing on the land, on a lease agreement between a farmer and the CVWMA.

I agree with Ogilvie’s contention that people who dump garbage illegally will do so, whether it is at the roadblocks or somewhere else.

What I saw is that spots where locals are used to putting in canoes and kayaks are now several hundred meters past the blocks, making it unlikely that many of them will do so.

I also took to heart Ogilvie’s comment that he had learned a lot about wildlife, and probably about life in general, on drives around the Duck Lake loop with his father. It was an experience he shared with his own daughters, one that is now impossible to enjoy with his grandchildren.

My greatest concern, as I drove away that afternoon, was that there appears to be a widening gap between the CVWMA and area residents, and that a loss of local support is the last thing that the CVWMA needs.

With that in mind, I chatted with a friend who is an avid outdoorsman, intimately familiar with hunting and fishing areas in and outside of the management area. Like Ogilvie, I find him to be a very reasonable person. He echoed my concern.

Next week:  As a result of my meeting with Ogilvie, I have received some historical background from the man who I would describe as the Creston Valley’s history laureate. I’ll try to summarize some of that information and make sense out of the controversy.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.