Five popular campgrounds west of Harrison Hot Springs are now closed due to safety reasons.
All of the sites, including Chehalis River and Weaver Lake, are managed by the Sts’ailes First Nation, but the nation works in partnership with the province, which it says is responsible for conducting yearly assessments and any removal.
Recently, the province identified potentially dangerous trees, leading to the closure of the campgrounds until they are dealt with.
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In an open letter, the nation says this is just the latest blow, pointing to ongoing financial struggles and a lack of support from the province.
One camper, who recently stayed at two of the sites, says the closures came as a shock to the community.
“For this to happen all of a sudden, a lot of people woke up and checked their social media and found out this was going on, it just seems like poor planning,” Ross Felling said.
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“The people that do have reservations coming up, they’re not going to find reservations for campsite availability for the next several weeks.”
The provincial government says it expects work to mitigate the trees to begin next week.
“As with anything out in the remote wilderness, with weather changes we cannot predict everything that’s going to happen within those sites and trails,” said Tamara Davidson, the B.C. environment and parks minister.
Anyone who has a booking while the closures remain in effect will be refunded.
Seem odd that with all the loggers that are out of work it takes so long to get a tree cut in bc
My guess is they don’t have any bodies to dig for so this is their way of hitting the 12 million dollar lotto.
“ ongoing financial struggles and a lack of support”
Only the FNs could miss manage a campsite. Most camp sites near Vancouver you can’t even get booking for and they can’t make money out of it or maintain it. The Stewards of the Land in action
“ managed by the Sts’ailes First Nation”
Says it all really doesnt it.
Why are they in charge of it when the province pays all the money and does all the work?
Natives want more free money to fix the problems on THIER lands. Shocking that they’d be looking for more handouts rather than getting up off the couch and doing the work themselves. They’re only hurting themselves and their reputations. People will camp elsewhere. The province is vast
The First Nations are supposed to be the caretakers? Makes sense. They can’t even now their own lawn.
Lame excuse from Tamara. Backcountry is slowly seeing closures around the province, so when a surprise shutdown happens people are going to be angry. This easily could have been proactively dealt with.
The NDP are removing the word “provincial “ from all the provincial parks. Done secretly behind closed doors. Eby is the slimiest human in, what in a few years will
Not be BC. DRIPA
“Financial struggles and lack of support from the Province?”
Are you kidding me?
“First Nations” are “Last in Financial management,”
What a joke!!!!
Very unusually case. Fallen trees in the forest.
I guess Global deletes all comments that have truth in them like the one they just deleted of mine. Maybe Willow can explain how in any way this is the fault of the NDP???? Campgrounds listed are all part of the band’s land, they have almost doubled the nightly rate in the last 2 years (from $18 to $30 for a single site at Chehalis), yet we taxpayers should go clear their hazard trees n their land? This is getting beyond ridiculous
INDIGENOUS PANDERING ONCE AGAIN, AT WORK !!! KEEP IT REAL
Less places for the people of BC to go to again. The NDP are destroying this province