Tim Masso is fed up.
For years now, the 18-year-old from the Tlaoquiaht First Nation near Ucluelet has watched the West Main logging road to Kennedy Lake spill over with campers who leave garbage and human waste, light fires and damage salmon streams and forestry areas in his traditional territory.
So this week, Masso set up a road block to turn people away.
“It’s the wild west out here and, with these illegal fires, it’s a disaster waiting to happen,” Masso said in an interview.
Masso was giving people 24 hours to leave the area and the RCMP were there “to keep the peace.”
Since Tuesday, nearly all of the vehicles parked along the road had left, and the stream of new arrivals every day have, for the most part, turned around and left, Masso said.
The West Main is a popular spillover for people arriving on the West Coast during the busy summer season and finding themselves shut out of accommodations.
Hotels and campgrounds in Ucluelet, Long Beach and Tofino are booked solid into the fall.
Ucluelet Mayor Mayco Noell said it’s not illegal to camp along the West Main, which goes about 20 kilometres into the bush.
The area is designated for backcountry camping, but with rules and expectations on handling waste and protecting the environment.
He said the people camping there usually fall into three categories — those with no housing options and work in the Ucluelet-Tofino area, the arrivals from out-of-province who just show up, and the largest group: “those who don’t mind sleeping in their cars and can’t wait to get up to go surf.”
“What Timmy Masso has started here is a serious discussion on what we have to do to make things better,” said Noell. “The messaging has to be zero tolerance for all of those concerns.
“I think the fact that Timmy is Indigenous gave him a high level of respect when he was talking with people … more than someone in a uniform,” said Noell.
Noell said enforcement is difficult as the RCMP has only five members and ambulance service is thin to cover such a large area. He suggested one solution may be pooled funding from municipalities to hire trained guardians for patrols.
Jim Chisholm, tribal administrator for the Tlaoquiaht First Nation, said Masso has brought attention to a dangerous situation.
He said it’s only a matter of time before a wildfire is ignited. The accumulated garbage is also a problem and the damage to natural areas in traditional Tlaoquiaht territory is shocking.
“The region is promoted for tourism, but [the capacity] to accommodate everyone isn’t here,” said Chisholm.
“It’s not a Tlaoquiaht problem to solve alone. Everyone has to come together — Parks Canada, Ucluelet, Tofino and us — to put our heads together and deal with this issue.”
Masso said action is needed quickly. He said forest companies and miners with quarries in the area have told him machinery has been vandalized and tools stolen.
He’s most upset about the disrespect shown to the natural environment, and to areas culturally significant to the Tlaoquiaht.
“These two small towns are not set up to handle the amount of tourism that is here,” Masso said. “There needs to be more infrastructure to support it.”
“We only saw three or four cars today. Last week there were 200. For me, that’s a win. I hope that Ucluelet and Tofino can see it.”
Masso said the Tlaoquiaht leadership “is 100% behind me. I stand up for the Tlaoquiaht people and did what’s right.”
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