The Douglas Lake Cattle Company has won a BC Court of Appeal case, which overturns a ruling that forced it to allow public access to two lakes in the Nicola Valley.
In the decision published today, a three-member panel voted unanimously that the trail leading to Minnie Lake and Stoney Lake is not public land. Their decision came after Justice Joel Groves ruled in Kamloops court in December of 2018 that the cattle company had to allow access to those two lakes.
Access had long been blocked off by the Douglas Lake Cattle Company, one of North America’s largest ranchers, before they were challenged in court by the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club and forced to keep a gate that blocked access to the two lakes open at all times.
But, in the Court of Appeal ruling released today, Justice Peter Wilcock says the Trespass Act allows the cattle company to ban the public from crossing its private property to access those lakes.
He went on to say Justice Groves made a mistake in ruling that the road leading to those lakes was exempt from a Crown land decision made in 1895, which granted the land to the cattle company.
“Because the trail was not excepted from the Crown grant and the elements of common law dedication are not met, the trail is not a public way,” Hancock said.
The cattle company is owned by U.S. billionaire Stan Kroenke.
As part of the Court of Appeal ruling today, both parties will now pay their own respective costs of the trial, although the Nicola Valley Fish and Game Club will have to pay the cattle company’s costs for its appeal. The non-profit club previously told NL News its own court costs were upwards of $350,000.
In 2018, when the ruling came down, club director Rick McGowan called it “precedent-setting” at the time, when it comes to public access to public lakes that are landlocked by private landowners. McGowan says more than 30 public lakes in the Nicola Valley are blocked off to the public by private land, and across B.C. he says more than 1,000 public lakes are blocked.
NL News has reached out to the club’s director Rick McGowan and the cattle company’s general manager Phil Braig for comment on today’s ruling.
(Photo Credit: Douglas Lake Ranch)
