Fires are Deliberately Set by Hunters in Blue Creek

Steward Dyck

Earlier this week, the Department of the Environment officially outlawed the lighting of brushfires, citing the activity as a public health hazard, aside from the destruction that it wreaks.  But farmers in the north, particularly those in Blue Creek complain that the fires that they have had to put out since the beginning of the year are deliberately set by hunters who poach in that area.  On Thursday, Steward Dyck explained that they have had to extinguish six massive fires on their farms since the beginning of the year.

Steward Dyck, Chairman, Blue Creek Cattle Committee

“Along with the drought this year, six times this year our farm alone has had to fight fires that we did not set.  We have hunters that come along the river, our farm is nearby a river, they paddle up with a canoe along the river and they climb through the bush and then they say, “Hey look, here’s a nice big field” and they light it on fire.  Two weeks later there will be new, fresh grass and then the deer and the wild game will come out and they will come here.  So six times this year already, just in the last few months we’ve had to rush to make out the fire, our pasture is burning.  So not only are we in drought, not only are we very short on grass and we’re buying hundreds of bales, our own pastures are being lit by other hunters.  When we report it to the police, like a few weeks ago we had a fire and we called the police and they didn’t do anything.  We know they are in the bush, right there, a couple hundred feet from the fire because the fire just got started.  We saw the fire start and we rushed there with three different water tanks.  Every guy on the farm, it doesn’t matter what side of the farm you’re on, you drop what you’re doing and you get your water tank, you get your machete, whatever you can do and you make out the fire because we need every blade of grass that we have.”