Province issues $8-K fine for Crown land tree theft

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This article was published 23/06/2023 (1181 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Steinbach business owner will be on Santa’s naughty list this year, after being fined for stealing Christmas trees from a Crown land plantation.

Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development said Friday the suspect pleaded guilty June 1, and received an $8,000 fine for the offence.

Conservation officers launched an investigation in December, after receiving a tip. On Dec. 13, they caught a suspect bringing trees out of the plantation north of Marchand, some 70 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg.

Officers found a total of 167 trees, most six to nine metres tall, had been chopped down, with the tops removed.

The suspect admitted he was selling the trees at his Steinbach business (not named Friday by the province). He was charged under the Forest Act of Manitoba.

The province said the lost trees are “a significant loss that negatively impacts long-term sustainable forest management projects in southern Manitoba,” because that’s how the trees grown on the plantation are used.

Meanwhile, diamonds may be forever, but you need permission to look for them on Crown land.

An unnamed mineral exploration company was issued seven tickets, fined $3,402 in total, and assessed timber dues at four times the regular rate, after the province found it was drilling for diamonds without permission on Crown land east of Snow Lake, some 675 km north of Winnipeg.

The province said an investigation was launched in January.

It found the company had cleared trees in a number of unauthorized work areas and was doing drill operations until a stop-work order was issued.