Lake Access for Fishing Legal Fight

If the road was used by the public for 20 years before the public easement laws were changed the club should have a good chance at winning. Otherwise, it will be tough to get a court to rule against the private land owner. Good luck to them.
 
I am following this case. Please post any updates if anyone has them.
 
TheBigGuy said:
If the road was used by the public for 20 years before the public easement laws were changed the club should have a good chance at winning. Otherwise, it will be tough to get a court to rule against the private land owner. Good luck to them.
Click to expand...
Who paid for road construction, upgrades and maintenance? Is the road wholly within its easement or have re-alignments caused it to encroach in a few places? I ask this because all these issues were brought up back in the mid 90s when Penticton Indian Band restricted access along a road through its reserve that was constructed and maintained with public funds. The band had done its homework - they received no legal censure due to the road being outside its easement in a dozen places due to undocumented modifications through the decades. Since then, the band insists on doing all maintenance in order to reinforce its control of the road (they do a decent job too).

The landowner is the Douglas Lake case will no doubt have done their homework as well. It might be that some technical issues are used to muddy the waters, as it were.
 
If public funds were used then that would certainly strengthen the case, but public funds do not have to be used for it to be considered a public road. The laws were changed some time ago to give property owners more rights. However, the laws did not erase easement rights if the right had existed for 20 years or more before the laws were changed. There are lots of complicated issues involved in these cases. If public funds were used at any time on the road for anything but snow removal then it usually is determined to be a public road.
 
I went up that road a few times to get to Paradise Lake, Island Lake and Boot lake.
When DLCR blocked access the owner of the cabins on Paradise Lake had no way to get there.
So, you and I and the rest of the tax paying citizens of BC had to pay for a new road into the area.
Why do think there is an Elkhart Lake exchange on the Okanagan connector?
After swallowing Corbett lake they will probably go after Kentucky - Alleyne Provincial park because they, the DLCR, says it is surrounded by their property.

My information at that time was that all of the DLCR was a Crown Land lease, given to the original lessees in order, back in the day, to attract settlers to the area.
That was just word to mouth though.
 
That is what the guys from the NVFG basically did and look what they are into.
If DLCR are monitoring the sites, which they could be, I would believe that you would have a visit from the RCMP about trespassing.
Are you willing to take the chance??
Or would you prefer to poke the bear?
 
Yeah. And when it goes to court it gets thrown out. Been happening for years. Not too many if any convictions cuz it's not %100. I'm watching this closely because I live on a creek that's slowly moving and my property peg is 10' out in the water. No barring public access even though the pegs where it is. The outcome of this case will be pressident setting no matter which way it goes.
 
jack-knox-mugshot-generic.jpg
The Douglas Lake Ranch used to be owned by Chunky Woodward.

Chunky, president of the Woodward’s department stores, was rich. In the 1970s there were stories — possibly true — of him driving into Kamloops from the ranch, big gold buckle on his belt, and rounding up the street drunks and taking them for a meal.

Well, there’s rich and then there’s rich. Stan Kroenke, the ranch’s current owner, is a multi-billionaire, the 148th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes. The magazine said he made $700 million US just by moving his football team, the Rams, to Los Angeles, part of a deal in which he was said to have transferred the Denver Nuggets of the NBA and the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL to his wife, the Walmart heiress. He’s also the majority owner of Britain’s Arsenal soccer club. His commercial real estate holdings are massive. Douglas Lake, Canada’s largest working spread, is just one of his cattle ranches.

That makes the current court case in which the Douglas Lake Cattle Co. is suing the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club a true David-versus-Goliath tale.

It’s also one with implications on Vancouver Island and elsewhere in B.C. where outdoor enthusiasts increasingly find backcountry access blocked by the owners of private lands.

It goes like this: in Western Canada, the law has generally held that the beds of lakes and rivers belong to the Crown, meaning that even when they’re surrounded by private property, you, as a member of the public, are free to fish them — as long as you can get to the water, either by public road or via a well-established right-of-way. B.C. is criss-crossed with backroads that people have treated as public while heading off to hike or cast a fly or shoot something.

Increasingly, though, outdoor types have found previously accessible properties blocked. In the Interior, the Nicola Valley club has spent decades trying to get back into a couple of lakes that Douglas Lake has reserved for its fishing resort guests. After the club petitioned the court to declare the ranch had improperly denied access, Douglas Lake responded by taking the long- simmering dispute to a full-blown (and expensive) trial.

The case is before the B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops right now. Douglas Lake says that not only is the access private, but so are the trout, since the ranch stocks the lakes. It also argues that because the ranch flooded the lakes beyond their natural boundaries, the land submerged under the expanded portion is private, putting the water above off limits.

The Nicola Valley club has been given financial support by other outdoor groups, the B.C. Wildlife Federation and West Coast Environmental Law. Andrew Gage, a lawyer with the latter, says his organization got involved in part because it was worried about financial muscle being applied to silence a weaker adversary in a case of public interest — basically, the question of whether lakes and the fish in them can be privatized, with the public left on the outside looking in. And yes, the issues being decided apply across the province.

In fact, they’re of particular interest on Vancouver Island, where the E&N land grants of the 19th century left much of the backcountry in private hands, particularly those of logging companies, today.

Last year, the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, in a report for the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C., documented some examples of conflict on the Island:

• The dream of the 700-kilometre Vancouver Island Spine Trail, joining together existing hiking routes along the old railway line, won’t come true until three big gaps across forest-company land are bridged.

• The B.C. Federation of Fly Fishers says Crown-owned Island lakes stocked with fish paid for with public money have been cut off.

• The Freshwater Fisheries Society of B.C. no longer stock about 30 lakes, mostly on central Vancouver Island, because access through private forests has been restricted. Among the examples: Jarvis and Weeks Lakes in the Sooke watershed and Timberland, Crystal and McKay Lakes near Cassidy.

This isn’t a black-and-white story. Private and public interests do need to be balanced. Property owners can argue they have good reasons — vandalism, liability fears, the threat of fire — to block access. Being rich doesn’t make Kroenke wrong. It does, however, make it relatively easy for him to advance his side of the dispute.

Meanwhile, it has fallen on the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club, a handful of working stiffs with fishing rods and pickup trucks, to represent what they see as the public interest. Where is B.C.’s political leadership in all of this?

Nowhere, says the club’s Rick McGowan. Government lawyers are in court, but not engaged in the battle. “Our little club is being left to fight this alone.”




© Copyright Times Colonist - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/l...country-access-1.8588394#sthash.HkTFH1jF.dpuf
 
It would be great if they did, but there's huge money stacked against them and apparent collusion from the provincial government to make private fishing lakes for profit far more common. The government obviously isn't interested in protecting the publics rights, or they would have intervened in this case. Quite the opposite they were trying to grease the skids so that the big money owner of the Douglas Lake Ranch was totally accommodated. Makes you wonder how much money changed hands in brown paper bags on that deal. Hey, if the Socred Premier could do business that way I imagine the Liberals aren't much different. We're talking about a billionaire owner here. I'm thinking there's more that's fishy involved in this case than just the trout in Minnie and Stoney lakes.
 
Someone should start a combination hot air balloon fishing excursion business to these so called private lakes if the case is lost. I'd like to see them try and stop that. Next they'll be claiming they own the air space above the ranch as well.
 
I read the closing argument. Very comprehensive and obviously a ton of research involved. The club have received excellent value for their money, but what a shame that it came down to a non profit club having to take the lead on this whilst the government has neglected to take any action to preserve the rights of citizens to access public waters. The ranch obstructed a public road FFS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Derby
Cowichan Lake weir project called saviour for stressed river
Replies
1
Views
258
Whole in the Water
Whole in the Water
T
How would a person catch fish on Mara Lake BC?
Replies
1
Views
841
disco
disco
Derby
B.C. angler ‘overwhelmed’ at winning lake access case against billionaire ranch owners
Replies
1
Views
459
IronNoggin
IronNoggin
Daveroo
Cannonball weights for lake fishing
Replies
8
Views
1K
BCROB
BCROB
islandboy
access to Minnie Lake and Stoney Lake
Replies
5
Views
1K
absolon
A
Back
Top