Carcass clean-up going slow

FORT FRANCES—Efforts to clean up the deer and moose carcasses littering the turn-off to “Blueberry Mike’s” road between Lots No. 4 and 5 in Concession No. 1 in Miscampbell is creeping along at a snail’s pace, but at least it’s moving.
Severed heads, limbs, skeletons, and other debris have littered the area for a long time.
Drew Stajkowski, a senior environmental officer with the Ministry of the Environment in Kenora, who in an article in the Times on the issue last month said he would look into who owned the property adjacent to the road, has done that.
Neither the Ministry of Natural Resources nor the Miscampbell roads board claimed authority in the matter.
Because it is a private land issue, the MNR has no jurisdiction unless the trespass action involves illegal hunting or fishing.
Meanwhile, the Miscampbell roads board took “Blueberry Mike’s” road off the road maintenance and repairs list due to limited funding sometime prior to June, 2003.
“We tracked down the owners—there are two properties there [and] they will be advised of their responsibility to clean it up,” Stajkowski said late last week.
And if those individuals don’t heed the warning, Stajkowski indicated there are other measures in place to ensure the property owners take on some kind of clean-up action.
However, he added the owners involved in the matter will have the opportunity to address the MoE once advised of their responsibilities.
“We have other tools to ensure compliance [but] realistically we have to give [the owners] the opportunity to respond to us [first],” Stajkowski said.
He indicated that property owners of the land adjacent to the roadway were expected to reply to the MoE by June 9.
(Fort Frances Times)