Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry announced that as of 12:01 a.m. on April 16, "recreational camping on Crown land will be prohibited to help stop the spread of COVID-19." Under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act, camping for recreational purposes on public land administered by the ministry is prohibited. "You also cannot occupy tents or other camping structures, such as trailers, recreational vehicles and watercraft equipped for overnight accommodation," said the ministry on its website.
After the way our lands and lakes were trashed last year from "camping" all over the place, I hate to say it but I'm glad. Hopefully it will give people time to think and learn how to respect the outdoors before they lift the ban and we can go again. It's pretty simple really: -If you brought it in, take it out. That means everything is gone when you leave. Everything. Nothing is left behind. -If you can't eat it, leave it alone. Don't go around half cutting down every tree in sight. -Make proper arrangements for when nature calls. They're called portable toilets, use them. -If you eat fish, throw any paper used for cleaning in your garbage. Discard carcasses in a deep spot of the lake. Turtles will enjoy them. Don't leave them on shore rotting and drawing in flies. -Please just use some common sense. Think about what you are doing first and ask yourself if it feels right. If it doesn't, don't do it.
Hopefully this ban will give time to educate people on how to respect our crown lands and lakes so when the ban is lifted we can go back to our back lake fishing trips again and not be ashamed of what we find.
_________________ HUNT, FISH and RIDE
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