What now?
That’s the question residents in the southeastern corner of Westlock County are asking following the expiration of the lockdown period for the quarter of public land that had been used as an illegal shooting range.
On June 26 Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) locked up the quarter of Crown land (SW19-TWP59-RGE23-W4M) for 28 days after allegations of unlawful activity in the area.
Westlock County reeve Bud Massey said the county has noticed a reduction of activity since the closure, however a handful of charges under the Public Lands Act have been laid.
“There’s been a reduction, but unfortunately some people haven’t wanted to honour the closure,” Massey said. “I know of at least three people that have been charged.”
The closure has alleviated some of the problems, said Massey, although in some cases it’s just been shifted elsewhere.
“Some people have just moved a few quarters of land down and they’re just carrying on business as usual,” Massey said.
“We’ve had some positives. There’s been some education and people are honouring it to some degree.”
Area resident Natalie Langkopf, who was among a group of area residents to spearhead a petition calling for the county to take action on the quarter, said she has noticed some difference.
“I couldn’t say for sure, but I think it’s made a difference.” Langkopf said.
“We’ve had a number of quaders in the back of our area and I couldn’t tell you if it’s an increase because they closed down that quarter or not, it’s really hard to tell.
“I couldn’t tell you that I’ve seen a great change.”
Bevin McNelly, another area resident, said the lockdown period did have some impact, but fears it’s only a matter of time before things get out of hand at the site once again.
“For the first week or two after the closure you heard the odd shot, and I don’t know where guys were doing that at … but in the last week or two I haven’t heard anything,” McNelly said.
“I’m afraid after this month is finished it’s just going to start all back up again. It has deterred some people, but as soon as it’s back open again and you get your first few people coming back here, word is going to get around again.”
McNelly said noise and safety are only two of their fears as in the spring residents have dealt with forest fires caused by quaders.
Two fires were started in the area this spring, one of which was known to have been caused by flare guns.
“It’s a very scary situation … it’s very stressful,” he said. “Every spring you can’t go away because you’re scared there’s going to be a fire. People are fed up with that.”
A full assessment of the lockdown with the RCMP, AEP, council, and county staff will come after the lockdown period is over.
“The people who have been involved will be meeting and analyzing what worked, what didn’t work, what we could do different and what a long-term solution might be,” Massey explained.
AEP will be among those the county will be meeting with and Massey said in the long term he expects some sort of a report.
Afterwards the county will meet with residents of the area to collect their feedback on the shutdown period.
“We would want to some feedback from the local residents, what they saw, how it worked, and what we could do different,” he said.
McNelly said he doesn’t want to see the area closed permanently, but would like to see proper enforcement of the area.
“The real solution, to me, is to shut this area down in the spring when the fire threat is on, then have somebody hired that has some authority that patrols the area on the weekends when it’s busy,” he said.
