November 12, 2009 Hamilton Spectator
Danielle Wong
A Six Nations resident said he and five other men were doing a “simple environmental assessment” in the Iroquoia Heights Conservation Area last Friday when they were confronted by a Ministry of Natural Resources officer.
It was a coincidence that deer guts were found in the Ancaster natural area, the same morning his group was in the area, Brian Skye said today.
“We were walking around, taking notes, doing counts of types of trees, the health of the overall area -- things like that. It was really noninvasive,” he said.
But neither the Hamilton Conservation Authority (HCA) nor the Ministry of Natural Resources have sanctioned or are aware of any studies in the area.
Skye said he and the men were taking care of plants and animals in accordance with their treaty rights: “It’s just a controversial thing. It seems people don’t want us to do that even though it’s our right to … protect our plants and animals.”
The HCA indefinitely closed the conservation area east of Highway 401 and north of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway last Friday after a ministry conservation officer confronted someone believed to be involved with illegal hunting, HCA manager Steve Miazga said.
Miazga said the man had told the conservation officer he was conducting a “chronic waste disease control study on deer.”
Skye, who is an “environmental monitor” for the Haudenosaunee-Six Nations Confederacy, said that was an element of their study. “If you have deer population that’s overpopulated, the overall health of deer themselves might become susceptible to different diseases.”
Ministry spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski said today she could not respond to Skye’s account, as the issue was still “under investigation.”
Kowalski said most of the ministry’s investigations are of violations under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act and do not involve criminal charges.
But the ministry oversees chronic wasting disease surveillance in the province, and is not surveying southern Ontario this year, Kowalski said, adding the disease has not been detected in Ontario testing areas since they began the research in 2002.
Some of the guys with him were dressed in camouflage, but that’s “winter gear,” Skye said.
Skye, who also owns a catering business, said it was the first time the group had visited Iroquoia Heights, but they had conducted similar environmental assessments before. When asked where, he said he could not say because the topic is “controversial.”
Details of what the group had found during the environmental assessment were vague. “We’ve done different things in different areas ... It was basically a walk in the park,” Skye said.
Miazga said there have been multiple killings of deer in Iroquoia Heights, but did not have a number.
The conservation area will remain closed until an understanding has been worked out with Six Nations band council, he said, adding HCA cannot set patrols around the park because there were too many unofficial entrances to the site.
Skye said the group carried only binoculars, cameras and notepads.
Kowalski would not say whether the involved party the conservation officer confronted had been carrying bows and arrows.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate to say anymore at this point,” she said.
The ministry officer was “confrontational” and “adamant” they were hunting there, Skye said.
“It was very circumstantial,” he said. “It’s just being blown out. We’re not going in there and killing deer.”