A relationship between Powell River Regional District (PRRD) and School District 47 is being put under strain after reports of unauthorized tree cutting and brush removal inside Haywire Bay Regional Park.
PRRD staff discovered School District 47’s Outdoor Learning Centre (OLC) facility director Hugh Prichard and students clearing trees and brush near trails outside of its designated area last month.
“The situation over there is utterly out of control,” said Patrick Brabazon, PRRD director for electoral area A, of the unauthorized activity.
PRRD is currently looking to negotiate a formal lease with the school district for use of the park land near Powell Lake. Before any lease is agreed to, Brabazon said a meeting with the school district superintendent and chair of Powell River Board of Education is necessary to “clear the air.”
The school district operates the OLC inside the park under a memorandum of understanding with PRRD, but a formal lease would strengthen the terms of the agreement for both parties.
Al Radke, PRRD chief administrative officer, said at a recent committee of the whole meeting that the work had been undertaken without permission. Some of brush and vegetation removal violated provincial environmental regulations, said Radke.
The school district made an application to have its land area increased inside the park in October 2014, but that decision has yet to be made. The area where the work was conducted is inside the requested expansion.
“We didn’t get on [the application] fast enough,” said Radke, “but two wrongs don’t make a right.”
The school district is looking for its boundary to stretch to the Haywire Bay campground access road. Teachers are already taking classes into the park outside the OLC boundaries and Prichard and a group of students were doing path maintenance to improve safety, said Steve Hopkins, school district secretary treasurer.
“[The expanded area] may not be strategic for the regional district, but it is for us,” said Hopkins. “The intuitive boundary for the area is the road.”
Hopkins added the school district was not attempting to do anything underhanded with the unauthorized work. The school district has had a very positive relationship with the regional district and the OLC was made possible through a strong partnership, he said.
“Prichard recognizes that he probably should have given a heads up,” said Hopkins. “It is within our memorandum of understanding to identify hazards for the regional district annually.”
