Compliance and enforcement widens its scope as boundaries are shifted

A recent change to the areas patrolled by provincial compliance and enforcement of-ficers is changing how they do their jobs. Since March 1st, com-pliance and enforce-ment officers from the Ministry of Forests and Range find them-selves in eight new dis-tricts province-wide that align with other ministry boundaries. The change will help officers deal with in-spection issues, and allow them to col-laborate with other enforcement officers, says Dave Banham, who manages the Omenica compliance

region, encompassing the Prince George and the Robson Valley. Banham says forest-ry officers are being trained how to enforce other domains under the Ministry of Envi-ronment such as min-ing, water, agriculture and energy. Similarly, other enforcement of-ficers are being trained in forestry. If a compliance offi-cial from the Ministry of Forests and Range goes out to inspect a harvesting block and passes a gravel pit that also requires an in-spection, Banham says the forest official will now have the ability to

do both inspections. “Here’s a perfect op-portunity for the staff member with the training to be able to stop in and do an in-spection on that site.” In the past the forests officer would have had

to call someone from the Ministry of En-ergy, Mines and Petro-leum Resources to do the inspection. Last year conserva-tion officers in Van-derhoof were tied up when a bear trap was needed. Banham says

with a quick phone call, two enforcement officers from forests trained in bear traps were able to respond. “It’s right here in the community ... It’s a better, more effective use of our resources.”

Other enforcement officers are receiv-ing training in for-estry. The Ministry of Environment divi-sions who will be col-laborating include the Conservation Officer Service, Protection Di-vision, Water Steward-

ship division, Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum, Ministry of Agriculture for land is-sue enforcement, Min-istry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Sports and the Arts. The province is now split into eight differ-ent sub-regions for compliance and en-forcement. The office in McBride now re-ports to Prince George instead of the Clearwa-ter Forest District. The office in Clearwater is now in the Thompson-Okanagan sub-region, which is headquar-tered in Kamloops. The Robson Valley and McBride office

Laura Keillkeil@therockymountaingoat.com

A6 Tuesday, June 08, 2010 www.therockymountaingoat.com

are now part of the 15.5 million hectare Omenica sub-region which runs west to Endako on Highway 16, east to the provin-cial park boundary at Mount Robson, south to Albreda Creek, and north to Pine Pass. It includes the Macken-zie Forest District and Fort St. James. Compliance and En-forcement staff no lon-ger report to a district manager. Instead they report to the sub-region manager, who reports directly to the ministry in Victoria. Officer training is ongoing in Prince George.

Dave SalaykaSpecial to The Goat

Valemount bikers win fourth at Whistler

The Valemount Tim-berwolves mountain bike team kicked up a lot of mud recent-ly, placing fourth in the annual B.C. High School Mountain Bik-ing Provincial Cham-pionships in Whistler. Cyclists from 44 teams raced through an 8.3 km course with a va-riety of technical root, rock, boardwalk and downhill and some good climbs comple-mented by rolling sin-gle and double track. After heavy springtraining with coach Les van der Roest, the 10 members of the Valemount team per-formed well on a cool and drizzly day May 29th. Top 15 individual results are as follows: Bantam Girls 1st place, Hannah van der Ro-est. Juvenile Girls 6th

place, Jessica Shalla. Senior Girls 3rd place, Angie McKirdy. Ju-venile Boys 4th place, Linden Ladouceur. Senior Boys 7th place, Logan Ladouceur. Se-nior Boys 13th place, William van der Zwan.The 10 members on the Valemount team who participated in the championship are Trent Cuddeback, Ra-phael Jamin, Linden Ladouceur, Logan La-douceur, Liam Mastre, Angie McKirdy, Har-mony Nelson, Jessica Shalla, Hannah van der Roest, and William van der Zwan. Coach Les knows how to make the best of a road trip, so the day after the race the team did downhill bik-ing at Whistler Moun-tain with the Schools on Dirt program. Whistler has some of

the best downhill bik-ing trails in the world, with tabletop jumps, step-ups, drops, tech-nical mud, root, rock, wall rides and board-walk. Riding rented downhill bikes with plenty of suspension, full-face helmets and body armour, the team hit the slopes for an-other great day. On the return trip, the team did some cross-country riding in Kamloops. This was a mix of rolling single track and a moderate climb to the top of Sig-nal Mountain followed by a descent made more challenging due to passing rain squalls. The team had a re-warding and memora-ble time. Congratula-tions to the teamand coach for a very successful race!

Right: Raphael Jamin just after the finish. He flat-ted, crashed at high speed, but finished the race. Be-low: left to right back row: coach Les van der Roest, Logan Ladouceur, Raphael Jamin, William van der Zwan, Harmony Nelson, Linden Ladouceur, Angie McKirdy, Jessica Shalla. Front row: Duncan van der Roest, Hannah van der Ro-est, Liam Mastre, and Trent Cuddeback. Photos cour-tesy of Dave Salayka.

“It’s right here in the community ... It’s a better, more effective use of our resources.”

Dave Banham, compliance and enforcement manager.