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BCAL satisfied order brought to commercial backcountry operations

14-month transition period has reduced conflicts, put process in place There's a new enforcer in the backcountry.

14-month transition period has reduced conflicts, put process in place

There's a new enforcer in the backcountry.

He's the first one of his kind in the province with a history as a park ranger and 14 years under his belt as a safety manager at Cypress Mountain.

His name is Bob Cunneyworth and he's the B.C.'s Assets and Land Corporation's (BCAL) compliance officer in the corridor.

"Having Bob walking the front line is kind of like having the neighbourhood cop walking the beat," said BCAL's David Reilley.

Cunneyworth began patrolling the backcountry after BCAL announced over a year ago that all commercial recreational users in the area must have tenure to operate on Crown land.

Prior to that time only a handful of operations had tenure.

"The (commercial recreational) industry grew up in the corridor faster than the government grew up," said Reilley, comparing the former situation to the Wild West.

To gain control over the amount of commercial recreational users in the area, BCAL gave all existing operators a 14-month transition period, at the end of which, each one had to be licensed.

Since that transition period ended in November this year, BCAL has looked at over 53 different commercial backcountry recreation applications. Some have been approved. Others have been disallowed.

"We are satisfied that what we set out to do 14 months ago has been achieved," said Reilley. "We are not aware of any significant illegal activity out there that we haven't been able to nip in the bud."

Cunneyworth's role throughout this period has been to enforce the Land Act and make sure that commercial recreational users are compliant.

He patrols the backcountry about three days a week on his snowmobile and over the course of the last 14 months he said many operators have had a change of opinion about land tenure and BCAL's role.

"It has evolved in the fact that there are quite a few more legal operators out there who are willing to talk," he said.

He added that many licensed users now see him, and consequently BCAL, as a way of protecting them from unlicensed competition.

"I'm part of their fee for service. I'm a by-product of what they're paying for," he said.

Crown land is an asset that belongs to everyone in B.C. but the Land Act did not anticipate the boom of commercial recreational activity in this area throughout the past decade.

"We reached the point that we had to come to terms with the fact that the resource isn't infinite," said Reilley.

Over the course of the past 14 months, 17 applications have been approved and finalized by BCAL and seven have been approved and will soon be finalized.

Those businesses, like #1 Paintball Games, Blackcomb Helicopters, Canadian Snowmobile Adventures and Outward Bound, were offered tenure on the land for between three and five years.

"Unless there is a significant problem, they'll continue to be renewed," said Reilley. "We did not want to lock the Crown in for 20 years, so if we had to make adjustments, we have some flexibility."

For the eight applicants who were disallowed tenure on the land, Reilley said BCAL tried hard to work out a solution.

"There was nothing arbitrary or capricious (about disallowing an applicant)," he said.

There were various reasons for not approving those eight applicants.

For example, Outdoor Adventures at Whistler were disallowed tenure because they were unable to resolve issues with an existing operator in the area whose boundaries overlapped. Eco Mountain Tours Ltd. was disallowed because they could not get approval from the Ministry of Forests to use a specific trail within their boundaries.

"Our general approach with this is because we're dealing with existing businesses, we had to have a good reason to shut them down," said Reilley.

Seven other decisions have been put on stand-by until April 2002, when the provincial government issues new guidelines for commercial activity on rivers.

Reilley is pleased with the way things have progressed over the past 14 months.

"I think the process was accepted by the community as a reasonable process," he said. "The government has come in and regulated an industry without getting any major stakeholders offended."

Now BCAL and the tenured operators appear to be reaching for a common goal and that's why the lines of communications with the compliance officer have remained open.

"I haven't found any environmental damage. The majority of operators are out there to promote the wilderness... We have quite common goals," said Cunneyworth. "The commercial recreational operators are more environmentally aware than the general public."

Having an officer out in the field is a way to avoid a heavy-handed punishment for offenders, said Reilley.

Now that the transition period is over, BCAL is open to looking at new commercial recreational businesses after putting a moratorium on processing any new tenure applications over the past 14 months.

"The process is now more streamlined than it was two years ago," said Reilley.

"The current government has now made a commitment that applicants will have a decision in 140 days from the day they apply," he said. "They eliminated a lot of the dead wood in the process without eliminating a lot of the time that was needed to be invested for due diligence."