Yes sign smashed

Billboard vandalized in overnight just 3 days after being installed

National park supporters are fuming after a billboard was chopped down by vandals last weekend only three days after it went up. The sign, which was approximately four metres wide and three metres tall, stood on private property along Highway 3 in Cawston. Erected last Thursday, it highlighted survey results that show public support for a national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

Vandals toppled the billboard by cutting eight wooden posts that held it up.

“And then the brand new sign, which was worth over $2,000, had been slashed with a very sharp instrument. So it wasn’t just a random act by someone just driving by,” said property owner Lee McFadyen.

“It was done in the dead of night, and it required equipment to do it.”

The posts were cut between 11:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 a.m. Sunday by people who also littered the site with beer cans.

“The perpetrators did not respect a differing opinion and they also don’t respect the land they claim to want protected,” said McFadyen. “It’s an act of bullying — intimidation and bullying.”

A work party is being organized to repair the damage.

McFadyen donated use of her land to the South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Network, which purchased the sign.

Network co-ordinator Doreen Olson said she’s disappointed, but not surprised, by the destruction.

“Deep down, we thought they might do it,” she said, referring to opponents of the proposed national park.

Keremeos RCMP Cpl. Brian Evans said officers collected material from the scene and are processing it for forensic evidence.

It’s the first large-scale act of vandalism related to the national park issue that he’s aware of.

“People have a right to disagree or protest certain causes. People don’t a right to cause mischief or vandalism,” said Evans.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Keremeos RCMP at 250-499-5511 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

The B.C. government announced earlier this year it plans to renew talks with its federal counterpart about the prospect of a national park after abandoning the process in 2011 due ostensibly to a lack of public support for the concept.

Opponents have raised fears about losing access to the proposed park area for existing uses, such as ranching and hunting.

Contributed photos Above: Vandals on the weekend toppled a billboard supporting the concept of a national park in the South Okanagan-Similkameen. Support posts were cut and the sign was slashed. Below: The sign during the brief time it was up.