Canadian Forest Lockdowns?

NVUplandHunter

NVUplandHunter

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 15, 2022
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193
Friends north of the boarder, just saw something stating that in Nova Scotia it’s not illegal to enter a forest and unnecessary activities like hunting camping hiking fishing are all now off limits and carry a $25,000 fine for violating. What’s up with that??
The video said the justification was due to wildfires that burned 200 homes. But it’s gotta be more than that.

Anyhow, if that’s really true and that you can’t even hike in the forest, how crap that sucks.
 
I think it is true. Far to dry and to many fires to take chances. I am in the west(Saskatchewan) and we have evacuated settlements of over 2000 residents.
 
There have been forest closures in alberta before as well, once you see how these fires can go, and how stupid people can be in starting them, it just has to be done when the conditions are extreme. The government isn't capable of every day life, far less any involved conspiracy theories.
 
elkhunteralta said:
There have been forest closures in alberta before as well, once you see how these fires can go, and how stupid people can be in starting them, it just has to be done when the conditions are extreme. The government isn't capable of every day life, far less any involved conspiracy theories.
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I live in the west and have seen how the fires go. But I could never imagine our public lands being shutdown and a massive fine imposed to simply walking in the woods on a trail.

Our forests will have campfire restrictions and when they are allowed you must obtain a permit and follow the rules as far as where campfires are allowed. But no hiking on a designated hiking trail.. insane.
 
Yes, I got to Manitoba in June for a bear hunt only to be turned away when I got to camp - too many fires.
 
I have seen this in Montana in the past, if forest service elevates fire restrictions to stage 3 it will close the forest.
 
They used to down here, but the local businesses complain to much about lost revenue. They would prefer wildfire. Then wait 100 years for the forest to grow back. 15 or so years ago we had to prove residency to get into our house which is private property surrounded by NF . (during high fire danger) .
 
In 2003 they closed a large portion of sub-Region 8 and parts of Region 4 here in S. BC after multiple large fires started (including the fire that burned 400+ homes in a portion of Kelowna, a city of 100K people).

Logging crews that were pulled out of the bush were paid to supplement law enforcement to set up and man road blocks. The land was completely closed all of August and the first week of September until the rains came.

No conspiracy: when common sense isn't and resources become thin, hard choices have to be made to protect resources and lives.
 
Arizona and New Mexico have often closed access to forests for fire prevention during the summer dry seasons and that’s without active fires. The Magdalena district in the heart of the Gila gets access shut down almost every year. Before loading up and heading that way we always check for closures. Once upon a time many years ago we didn’t and were greeted with red signs on closed gates noting the closure. That was 10 hours of wasted driving time :)

So yeah the US Government can and does close access to some of our forests at times just for fire prevention.
 
NVUplandHunter said:
I live in the west and have seen how the fires go. But I could never imagine our public lands being shutdown and a massive fine imposed to simply walking in the woods on a trail.

Our forests will have campfire restrictions and when they are allowed you must obtain a permit and follow the rules as far as where campfires are allowed. But no hiking on a designated hiking trail.. insane.
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In 2015 the USFS Closed portions of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest for a couple of weeks, due to fire concerns.
 
NVUplandHunter said:
I live in the west and have seen how the fires go. But I could never imagine our public lands being shutdown and a massive fine imposed to simply walking in the woods on a trail.
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During a few months in 2020, citing Covid concerns, the State of Oregon shut down nonresident fishing and hunting.
 
LFC911 said:
not the whole forest, just parts
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Years ago I worked for a road crew in Oregon that was part of a logging company. Public lands timber contracts often require improvements to existing mountain roads. The state had more severe fire restrictions than the feds. There were often times in the summer where we could not work on state land but could work on the adjacent federal land. There were also times where as a requirement to work, the roadway within the working area and haul route was to be continuously sprayed with a water truck, and the wind speed and humidity tested and recorded at the top of every hour. If the wind passed a certain speed threshold or the humidity got too low, work would have to be halted until conditions improved.
 
I've never seen the forest completely locked down, but have worked "hoot owl" hours when I was logging. We were also under contract to move on any fire that was started within a reasonable distance of our timber sale.
 
Same thing happened in BC a few years ago. It's the easy button for the government instead of trying to decide which activities can go on and which ones to ban. You can't quad but you can bike, but no E bikes. And you can hike but don't bring a stove and make sure you car is parked on gravel not on dry grass. There's summers when it just gets too dry and any human activities is a risk. They have to pander to the lowest common denominator.
 
Given how most folk are, I cant blame them for locking things down.

IdahoBeav said:
Years ago I worked for a road crew in Oregon that was part of a logging company. Public lands timber contracts often require improvements to existing mountain roads. The state had more severe fire restrictions than the feds. There were often times in the summer where we could not work on state land but could work on the adjacent federal land. There were also times where as a requirement to work, the roadway within the working area and haul route was to be continuously sprayed with a water truck, and the wind speed and humidity tested and recorded at the top of every hour. If the wind passed a certain speed threshold or the humidity got too low, work would have to be halted until conditions improved.
Click to expand...

Yup. Lots of 1pm shut downs and driving up to the job, check humidity and go home:rolleyes: Summer time paychecks were always the smallest
 
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