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Ranchers welcome $2.2-million for fencing

Announcement as part of a new rural economic strategy
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British Columbia Cattlemen’s Association general manager Kevin Boon

Minister of State for Rural Economic Development Donna Barnett was in Lac la Hache on March 31 to announce $2.2 million in fencing funding to area ranchers and cattle industry representatives.

The funding will be spread over a three-year period to help replace aging, damaged fencing on provincial Crown land used by the ranching industry in British Columbia, she explained.

It is part of a plan recently released in the recent Rural Economic Development Strategy after months of work by the members of a rural committee co-chaired by Barnett, who is also the Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA.

"There are a lot of ranchers who have got Crown fences where the pine-beetle [dead fall] has devastated it, between their land and the Crown land. So hopefully, over the next [three] years, this will be some restitution to help them out."

This money is for fencing Crown lands bordering cattle ranches and for range tenure holders, an infrastructure that is important for both protecting the rancher's cattle as well as for the province's sensitive ecosystems, she explained.

Noting this is unrelated to the government's highways fencing program, Barnett said it will again be administered by the B.C. Cattlemen's Association (BCCA).

B.C. Cattlemen's Association general manager Kevin Boon, of Kamloops, was on site for the announcement, along with some of the South Cariboo's larger cattle ranchers, Dianne and Norman Wood [on their own ranch], Marvin Monical [also in Lac la Hache] and Ted Pincott [Buffalo Creek].

Boon said the most important next steps will be to find those priority Crown fences for each range and each tenure holder, and then determine what actions most need to be done.

"It might be that we take out a fence that is not needed anymore – it might not be all towards putting new stuff in – but the priority is to get some of these old fences identified."

While industry infrastructure is crumbling across the province, a big percentage of these fences will be in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, because that is where much of the cattle are in B.C., he noted.

"This is really concentrating on the rancher and the ranch and the range infrastructure, because it can be split between other things. The infrastructure [funding requests] go back a long time, we've have been asking for it for years, and we do get little infusions here and there."

Boon added he believes government's focus is likely aiming at a more concentrated and more fair way of distributing this $2.2 million in fencing money over three years, which he categorizes as "a good start."

"It's great to have the money, but we know there's not enough to fix it all ... for every application we fill, we get three more through the door that need to be done."

Noting the BCCA had only just heard a few days before the public announcement that it would be administering this fund, Boon said he expected qualifying fence work might include that being done by the ranchers, their hired hands or their fencing contractors.

"We're going to be sitting down with the range officers in [determining] what is the best way of delivering it.

"There is a realization coming [outside of the ranching industry] that infrastructure, especially, isn't something that a one-time shot fixes. Our good fences will last 30, maybe 35 years, and they are constantly going down."

The fences built about that long ago through the former Agricultural and Rural Development Subsidiary Agreement (ARDSA) grants of federal-provincial funding are now "really starting to deteriorate," the BCCA general manager explained.

"It's about replacing that infrastructure, and making sure that it's applicable now, and in the right places. There's an environmental aspect to this too, where we utilize these fences to make sure the cattle are in the best spot for the cattle, and for the environment.

"So, it's not just for the ranchers, it's for everybody, to make sure that asset is protected also."