MONDAY
S I N C E
1 8 9 5
MARCH 26, 2012
Nitehawks advance to KIJHL final
Vol. 117, Issue 60
110
$
Page 9
INCLUDING H.S.T.
PROUDLY SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF
ROSSLAND, WARFIELD, TRAIL, MONTROSE, FRUITVALE & SALM SALMO
Atamanenko confident in new leader
SPRING SWING
BY VALERIE ROSSI Times Staff
VALERIE ROSSI PHOTO
Five-year-old Lewis Spooner was on top of the world Sunday when his dad Campbell Spooner of Rossland was getting him up to to new heights at Gyro Park during spring conditions.
The New Democrats have finally replaced the late Jack Layton with a permanent party leader. Thomas Mulcair was selected to fill the big seat after an attempted cyber-attack on the NDP’s electronic voting system Saturday forced party officials to temporarily delay the process of choosing its next federal leader. Six other candidates arrived in Toronto vying for the party’s top job, including former party president Brian Topp and dark-horse candidate Nathan Cullen. B.C. Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko is confident Mulcair will do a fine job, though he backed Cullen, who finished third. “I liked what (Cullen) had to say about cooperation with other parties, he committed to food sovereignty, the environment and the need to bring proportional representation,” he said. “Obviously I would have wanted my candidate to win but that’s the democratic process and I feel pretty good, I feel quite comfortable.” Atamanenko cast his vote via regular mail since he was on his way back to Ottawa from his riding, where he was on a food sovereignty tour during the NDP convention. “I’m not much of an online person anyways,” he said.
See SMOOTH, Page 3
Abuse puts public access to Fort Shepherd in jeopardy BY TIMOTHY SCHAFER Times Staff
Although the Fort Shepherd Conservancy Area opened to the public this month for a third season, there still remains a danger of the popular area being closed. Guarded closely by the Trail Wildlife Association (TWA) and its president, Terry Hanik, the area south of Trail down Casino Road is used by all sorts of recreationalists, but not always towards a noble pursuit. Hanik said after the TWA took over in 2010 as stewards of the land, people have been trying to keep the area in as pristine condition as possible. But it only takes one or two people to wreck it, he said, usually by dumping garbage
or driving into regions own allows people “This is the closed to vehicle trafto go in and use,” he fic. said. “But the area only area Over the winter, could end up being that The Land some people created shut down if they Conservancy has abuse the land.” bonfires on Teck’s land — the first eight And it would be a let people go in kilometres before great loss to the local and use.” the conservancy — recreation culture if TERRY HANIK burned pallets and that were to happen. left some refuse, said Hundreds of people Hanik. each year use the Continued acts of that nature Fort Shepherd area to hike, fish, would precipitate closure of swim, hunt, mountain bike, walk the area by the advisory com- dogs or go down to view monumittee that included The Land ment at Fort Shepherd and look Conservancy, Teck and TWA rep- around for artifacts. resentatives. Hanik’s duties as warden are “This is the only area that The to inform users, as well as observe Land Conservancy has let people and report violations. go in and use. No other piece they “I try to educate people on
what they can and can’t do so that we can keep this special area open to everyone.” Last year Hanik said he was in contact with 364 groups of people in vehicles — down from 409 in 2010 — as well as 159 people on quads (71 in 2010) and 293 people on motorcycles. Hanik admitted he doesn’t have much authority as warden to directly penalize those who take liberties with the land, but he will take down names and licence plates and forward them to the proper authorities if need be. “We can’t stop people from going into the area like they have been for years … and we’re not stopping people from entering the area, we just want people to
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respect what is there,” he said. The deal for the land was negotiated when Teck sold the 964-hectare property to TLC in 2006 for $500,000, one-third of its market value, and then a partnership was formed with TWA. According to TLC’s website, the site on the west side of the Columbia River southwest of Trail has the “largest intact area of very dry, warm Interior cedar hemlock in British Columbia. “The dry rock slopes contain crevices that shelter endangered or threatened wildlife, including canyon wrens, Townsend’s bigeared bats, and racers. As many as 29 rare species of wildlife have been found or are expected to live on the property.”
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