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Monique Keiran: Crown-land lake battle reminiscent of Berlin siege

Over the past couple of decades, British Columbians have seen a wild-country version of the Berlin Wall play out in their backyard. In December 2018, the B.C.

Over the past couple of decades, British Columbians have seen a wild-country version of the Berlin Wall play out in their backyard.

In December 2018, the B.C. Supreme Court confirmed the public’s right to access Crown-owned Stoney and Minnie lakes, near Merritt, by the existing public road. However, unlike the unequivocable, free and unfettered access gained between West and East Berlin when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, questions, appeals and cross-appeals still clutter the path to public access to Crown lands in B.C.

Anglers had fished Stony and Minnie lakes for decades. Although the privately owned Douglas Lake Ranch surrounds the lakes, under common law, lakebeds in B.C. are considered Crown property — if you can get to the water by a well-established right-of-way or a public road, you can fish or paddle the lakes.

For the anglers visiting Stoney and Minnie lakes, a public road passing by the lakes through the ranch provided that access.

But when U.S. billionaire Stan Kroenke bought the ranch in the mid-2000s, ranch management locked the gates on the road, cutting off the lakes in much the same way that the Berlin Wall once isolated West Berlin from the rest of the West.

Between 1945 and 1961, residents of Berlin crossed back and forth between the city’s East German and Western sectors.

Many East Germans took advantage of that to defect to the West. That changed at midnight on Aug. 12-13, 1961. A friend’s mother once told me how, on that evening, she deserted her post at an East Berlin hospital to race on foot through the city to the last open checkpoint. She made it through before passage was choked off and slept in her own bed that night. One of her sisters — and thousands of others — didn’t make it.

From that night until the Berlin Wall fell, West Berlin was a geopolitical island in Soviet-aligned territory. Travel in and out was restricted to a few tightly controlled roadblocks.

The wall was patrolled by machine gun-toting soldiers with orders to shoot first, then ask questions.

Despite Crown ownership of lakebeds and river bottoms in British Columbia — despite the existence of a public boat launch and a campsite provincial recreation area on Stoney Lake’s south shore (B.C. Recreation Site #REC1644) — the Douglas Lake Cattle Company locked the gate on the access road. Stoney and Minnie lakes became West Berlins, with ranch employees allowing only ranch guests through.

The analogy to Germany’s Cold War situation ends there. As a very successful capitalist, ranch owner Kroenke has the deep pockets and resources to challenge all uninvited comers.

His Douglas Lake Cattle Company claimed the road and legal right to lock the gates. It stocked the lakes — and claimed ownership of all fish in the lakes. It built dams to increase the lakes’ size — enlarging Stoney Lake from 15 hectares to about 57 hectares — and claimed that because the flooded land was privately owned, the lakes were off limits to the public.

Disputes about lake access led to the RCMP arresting fishermen for trespassing and the local fish and game club petitioning to have the road opened to the public. The province — the Crown — did nothing to assert its ownership of road or lakes.

A six-year legal battle between the club, the province and the ranch ensued. In December 2018, a B.C. Supreme Court judge determined area roads that ran near the lakes and were claimed by the ranch were public. He also said the company may be required to remove dams it had built to increase the size of some lakes.

Although the judge ruled the ranch cannot block access to either lake, he placed limits on what anglers can do. For example, ice fishing isn’t allowed on either lake, only catch-and-release fishing is permitted on Stoney Lake, and only certain kinds of boats can be used on the lakes.

Originally scheduled for the end of March but delayed because of COVID-19, the next chapter in the battle over lake access begins this week. The Douglas Lake Cattle Company is appealing the access to the lakes, the widths of the road and where the roads are located. The province is appealing having to pay half of the court costs of the 2012-18 case. The fish and game club is cross-appealing to clarify the language in the 2018 ruling and court orders. Both the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association and the Outdoor Recreation Council of B.C. are intervenors in the appeal.

keiran_monique@rocketmail.com