Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Oct 05/01) - Some people in Fort Simpson are shut out of a woodlot due to the road not being maintained.

With winter approaching, a number of residents normally make frequent forays about 14 kilometres up the Wrigley highway to the woodlot for firewood. However, muddy conditions have prevented many of them from reaching their destination this year.

Dale Switzer is one of several people who feel this road to a woodlot along the Wrigley highway is badly in need of repairs. The question is who should do it and how. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo

"I was up there about a week ago and I could hardly get through the ditch, and I was in a four-by-four," resident Dale Switzer said.

He said he knows of several other people who have been stuck in the soft ruts.

"It's no good having a woodlot if you can't use it."

Some people are under the impression that the Department of Renewable Resources is responsible for the road but they are mistaken, according to Paul Kraft, regional superintendent for RWED. Although there is still a sign identifying the woodlot as an RWED initiative, it's outdated, Kraft said. He said Renewable Resources used to hold a land-use permit for the lot, but they let that permit lapse in 1999.

"It starts off convenient, but like everything else it takes maintenance and time," he said. "It turned out to be very, very difficult to control (access) even with putting up a cable or a sign, people would go around it and use the road regardless. We just couldn't keep up with it."

Switzer said several years ago some people decided to contribute out of their own pockets towards having gravel laid along the road. "That went over like a lead balloon," he said, adding that having heavy equipment do the work has also been refused. "We're not supposed to be mucking up the environment."

Kraft said that Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's legislation would not allow for that.

Switzer now falls dead trees from alongside the highway instead. Kraft said that's a perfectly reasonable alternative, providing a few regulations are kept in mind.

"Unless it's private land, you still require a (timber cutting) permit," he said, adding that the permits are free. "And there's some restrictions as to distance from roads."