River squatter says Crown land belongs to everyone
Last Updated: Thursday, January 11, 2007 | 3:48 PM AT
CBC News
New Brunswickers who like to park their RVs on Crown land have been told they're no longer welcome, sparking debate about just who owns the people's forest.
Bathurst resident Rosemarie Doucet is disappointed by the government's decision.
Every summer, she drives 45 minutes southwest of the city, parks her trailer beside 35 others and leaves it there for several months.
"We park there, we go hunting and we go fishing, and at night we all sit around the fire with a guitar and people sing — we have a lot of fun," she said.
Doucet said the province is punishing everyone for the actions of a few and shouldn't be allowed to throw everyone out of a public space.
"The ones that are abusing it, they should've been warned, but you know, Crown land belongs to the people."
Earlier this week, Natural Resources Minister Donald Arseneault said the province had set aside 13 sites across the province for picnics or overnight tenting.
But in the summer, he said, some of those sites are crowded with as many as 70 recreational vehicles, set up for months at a time next to rivers and lakes.
Arseneault said the RV colonies leave behind trash and human waste, and because of that, the government is restricting access for day use or tenting only.
"[There is] raw sewage material, human waste, in certain areas you see some old rusted oil tanks just thrown out there," he said.
He said his department has received complaints from people being prevented from getting near waterfront sites because they were taken over with recreational vehicles and travel trailers for the entire season.
Doucet and her fellow campers are meeting Saturday in Bathurst to figure out a way to convince the government to let them stay in the woods.
Natural resources officers have already posted signs in the Nepisiguit River area near Bathurst explaining that RV camping is prohibited and several accesses to the river have been blocked to restrict RV access. Overnight tent camping is still permitted.
The department has also blocked access for trailers and other recreational vehicle campers at sites near Heath Steele, California Lake, Buck Falls, Wedge Mine and Indian Falls Depot.
