Dear Editor:
I wonder if more people have written off camping in B.C., as I have. (I gave away my camper and all my camping stuff, lots of it ended up in the dump.) The campfire bans have ruined something that my kids looked forward to more than Christmas (seriously).
The straw that broke this camel’s back was a ban at Porteau Cove a couple of years ago (I didn’t document it, but I remember it). It was cold and raining but we weren’t allowed to have a fire in our treeless, beachfront gravel campsite, next to a paved road, with running water and a fire extinguisher in my camper. It was just plain stupid.
Fifty bucks a night we paid for that ...
In the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s they used to give away free firewood at Alice, Cultus and Rathtrevor! How did those campsites not burn to the ground? It’s always been hot and sunny in August, yet somehow those campgrounds survived 100 years with campfires roaring at every site.
These blanket (complete) bans are a total over reaction. Has a forest fire ever actually been caused by a supervised campfire in a staffed provincial campground (the kind with fire rings, running water, etc.)?
There’s no info on it online, but logic dictates that Cultus, Alice Lake, Manning and Rathtrevor would have all burned to the ground almost immediately, so I’m guessing it’s no.
Brock Bishop
North Vancouver
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