Off Road Activity and Unauthorized Structures Provincial Contacts for Enforcement

With the recent approval of the Shared Services Plan for the Thompson Okanagan Management Area for all Natural Resource Ministries, development of the Okanagan Shuswap, Compliance & Enforcement Implementation Plan is underway. Two of the key priorities in the plan are:

1) Off Road vehicles causing environmental damage.
2) To address unauthorized structures such as cabins, homes, constructed
bike trails, docks and any other structure that has not been authorized by
government (ie) ILMB, MFR, MTCA).

While C&E is aware of some structures and sites we, by no means, have a full picture of known structures and ORV (off road vehicles) sites. To that end I am asking if you could take some time out of your day to assist us in addressing these priorities.

I have established contacts within the Okanagan Shuswap Field Unit, that will aide in this collection process.

For the ORV Environmental Damage, the contacts will be Randal Kohlhauser (Randal.Kohlhauser@gov.bc.ca) for the South; and Dan Krywonos(Dan.Krywonos@gov.bc.ca) for the North. For the abandoned/unauthorized structures, the contacts will be Don Lemp (Don.Lemp@gov.bc.ca) for the South; and
Todd Smith (Todd.Smith@gov.bc.ca) for the North.

If you come across or are aware of these sites, take the time to send to the respective contact, the following information:

i) geographic location
ii) nature of the site impacted
iii) directions on how to get there if required
iv) GPS coordinates if you have them
v) Any significant environmental, social(safety) economic issues you have noted

Another helpful method would be to pinpoint the location of the site on Map view and send a copy, with some detailed information noted above

Give some thought to the potential, positive impacts that your information may have. We all know there are issues with squatters, environmental damage and the like occurring in scattered locations across the district. With recent authorities that C&E staff have been issued (Special CO and Lands Officer status) we now have additional “tools” available to effect some positive outcomes related to these unauthorized activities.

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