What a spot for a cabinYesterday the Auditor General of Newfoundland issued his 2009 Report on his audit work for the year. One item in it is of keen interest to kayakers in Newfoundland, namely illegal occupation of Crown land. The Auditor General found thousands of cabins have been build on Crown land and Government doesn't have a good handle on the numbers, where they exist or whether they are legal in that a license to occupy was obtained.
Newfoundland has many bays filled with islands that are a joy to explore far from the clutches of civilization. Unfortunately when you paddle in these locations you find that other people have gotten there before you and built cabins in the best locations. Now, there's a question every time we encounter cabins whether they are kosher.
The issue for us are safe havens to be able to get off the water in an emergency. Most Newfoundlanders wouldn't deny a landing but incidents have been reported where Americans have tried to keep kayakers off "their" beach even by force of arms.
The other issue concerns the desirability of developing a water trail with a string of safe landings with good camping and a source of water. Newfoundland has some of the best seakayaking in the world and its a resource that could be built on to attract tourists who are kayakers.
We have to protect what's left and try to get evictions of illegal occupiers.
Lunch stop at Back Cove, Woody Island We stopped for lunch on this idyllic beach at the top of Woody Island that had already been taken possession of. After reading the Auditor General's Report, I wonder if the occupation is authorized.
We enjoyed our stay here regardless of the structures but certainly would have enjoyed the place more so without the reminder of humanity. Who wants to camp here on weekends when there are going to be cabin owners around?
A cabin tucked away Someone went to a lot of trouble to save this tree they planted as a substantial concrete butress was poured to keep it slipping into the sea. Don't care too much about this spot as the landing doesn't look inviting.
However I bet most of these cabins on "Crown land" will have deed's that the crown lands dept have no idea about,
ReplyDeleteI went into Crown lands last year to buy a peice of land in Trinity bay. Although my family has a deed for our land; on the crown lands dept data base they have all our acres as "crown land".
Whn I commented on it not being there although I had a deed he said anything outside of the urban center is pretty much not on file.
Some people have bought land, placed their sign on it only to be told they couldnt build there as a family already had that land deeded to them.
Everything isnt so black and white.
Your example points to Governments generally poor job of keeping accurate records of all kinds. I suspect that will change as more and more of our coastal land is bought by outside interests. I hope in the process we don't lose access to everything that's out there.
ReplyDeleteTony :-)