Some good reading with info from a conservation officer
Sunshine Coast trails warning!! - BB.BC4x4.COM
Sunshine Coast trails warning!! - BB.BC4x4.COM
beach driving
- Thread starter Enigma
- Start date
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I wonder how destructive normal driving on a beach is. I know the salt spray is pretty destructive on our rigs. Somehow I don't think the impact is as substancial on the environment as this DFO officer makes it out to be. Look at all the beach driving down the Oregon Coast or the beach driving in Australia (Fraser Island). All the same, if I didn't need to pass over a beach, I wouldn't likely bother.
That DFO enforcement officer is trying to show a presence and educate people to keep them from being asses. He wants to discourage people ripping up the tidal areas by means of the Fisheries Act. Tidal flats with eel grass and the rocky intertidal pools are very sensitive, a sand beach not so much. As he says about the mog climbing the rock, 'it is questionable practice'. Technically by the book that means any beach area is off limits.
For fresh water fish bearing creeks the vegetation (forest) is still considered fish habitat up to 30m from the high water mark. But nobody ever seeks agency approval to cross fish habitat as a recreational user (industry is a different matter).
Tread lightly and you will probably never have a problem with the law.
For fresh water fish bearing creeks the vegetation (forest) is still considered fish habitat up to 30m from the high water mark. But nobody ever seeks agency approval to cross fish habitat as a recreational user (industry is a different matter).
Tread lightly and you will probably never have a problem with the law.
Not condoning anyone ripping up the environment. I was just thinking about what I have seen other places and what I have seen of industry's actions on salt water on the coast here. It doesn't make it right. However, DFO does have bigger fish to catch. 
Martin you have a point about the creeks and rivers. Many of us have crossed the creek at Hale and elsewhere. I know I am guilty. Again, I don't try to rip up creek/river beds but I go through unless I think it's too deep. Again, compare that impact to a big placer outfit and you got apples and oranges again.
Martin you have a point about the creeks and rivers. Many of us have crossed the creek at Hale and elsewhere. I know I am guilty. Again, I don't try to rip up creek/river beds but I go through unless I think it's too deep. Again, compare that impact to a big placer outfit and you got apples and oranges again.
I agree John. But I wouldn't be too worried about that kind of trail use.
I think there probably isn't a CO out there that isn't a hunter or fisherman themselves. They get out in their trucks exploring the backroads too. I went to school with several people that got into DFO/MOE enforcement, one of them was big into wheeling.
When the CO drops by some river or lake and sees a guy on the beach unloading a boat to take his kids fishing, he'll probably give kudos for getting outdoors with the family. When sockeye opens on the Fraser everybody drives out on the gravel bars. The CO won't hand out tickets for damaging fish habitat even though everybody is parked in the active channel. Unless if you're doing donuts on the beach and are over the quota on fish. Likewise when the CO drops by a lake, sees a few trucks caked in mud up to their roofs and everyone's s***faced, he looks for stuff to charge people with.
It all comes down to the context of the situation. The spot on the Sunshine Coast he's reffering to is right beside one of the Sechelt Inlet Marine Park campsites. A video of a guy messing around on the beach in the area to him is now questionable, even if it isn't specifically showing him doing anything damaging.
I think there probably isn't a CO out there that isn't a hunter or fisherman themselves. They get out in their trucks exploring the backroads too. I went to school with several people that got into DFO/MOE enforcement, one of them was big into wheeling.
When the CO drops by some river or lake and sees a guy on the beach unloading a boat to take his kids fishing, he'll probably give kudos for getting outdoors with the family. When sockeye opens on the Fraser everybody drives out on the gravel bars. The CO won't hand out tickets for damaging fish habitat even though everybody is parked in the active channel. Unless if you're doing donuts on the beach and are over the quota on fish. Likewise when the CO drops by a lake, sees a few trucks caked in mud up to their roofs and everyone's s***faced, he looks for stuff to charge people with.
It all comes down to the context of the situation. The spot on the Sunshine Coast he's reffering to is right beside one of the Sechelt Inlet Marine Park campsites. A video of a guy messing around on the beach in the area to him is now questionable, even if it isn't specifically showing him doing anything damaging.