The BC Supreme Court has ordered the owner of 1050 Depot Road in Brackendale to stop cutting, removing or damaging trees on his property unless he gets a valid permit.
On Jan. 21, Justice Ronald Skolrood granted an injunction against numbered company 0742848 B.C. Ltd., which Donald McCargar owns. The injunction went into force on that date.
"I therefore order that the defendants, their officers, directors, employees, and agents, and all other persons having notice be prohibited from cutting, removing, or damaging any tree on or from the property with the legal description as set out in the notice of application, except in accordance with a valid and subsisting permit issued under the District of Squamish Tree Management Bylaw No. 2640, 2018, until final resolution of the within action," reads Skolrood's written judgment.
"This injunction will not prohibit the defendants from removing from the property, for the purposes of processing, trees that have already been cut or from removing branches and other debris. Rather, the intent of the order is to prohibit any new or further trees from being cut, except in accordance with a permit."
The case started when the District of Squamish sought an injunction against McCarger, asking the court to bar him from cutting trees at 1050 Depot Road.
Skolrood wrote in his decision Squamish provided evidence that it issued a stop-worker order to McCarger on Dec. 30, 2020.
The District, he said, told the courts that tree-cutting was happening on the property, even though no permit had been issued.
Skolrood said McCarger did not deny logging was happening, but noted the property owner's view was that he was exempt from the District's Tree Management Bylaw.
The basis for this argument was that the land is located in a floodway and/or an environmentally sensitive area or riparian assessment area, as identified in the the bylaw, and tree cutting activities are farm operations protected by the Farm Practices Protection (Right to Farm) Act, R.S.B.C. 1996.
According to the judgment, McCarger said the property is designated as residential farmland by Squamish, as reflected in the land's 2021 B.C. property assessment.
Skolrood wrote the land has been zoned for agricultural use, but he was not satisfied logging was protected by the Farm Practices Protection Act.
He said the act is intended to protect activities carried on by a farm business, but there is no evidence about the objective of the tree-cutting, and what, if any, business McCarger is engaged in.
"Specifically, there is no evidence that would permit me to find that the tree cutting was done as part of a farm business," Skolrood wrote.
He also said the Farm Practices Protection Act states any activity that qualifies as a farm operation must not be conducted in contravention of any applicable land use regulations, which would include the municipality's bylaw.
"For these reasons, I find that the tree cutting activity engaged in by the defendants is not exempt from the requirement to obtain a proper permit under the Bylaw, nor is it protected activity under the [Farm Practices Protection Act]," Skolrood said.
"Accordingly, I further find that the defendants have breached the Bylaw. The defendants have not established any exceptional circumstances that would justify the breach and therefore...I find that Squamish is entitled to an interlocutory injunction."
