The Province

Allure of weathered wood leads to explosion of fence rustling

- GLENDA LUYMES gluymes@postmedia.com twitter.com/glendaluym­es

A home-decor trend appears to be fuelling a series of “highway robberies” in the B.C. Interior.

The B.C. Cattlemen’s Associatio­n has had six reports of stolen fencing along Highway 5 this fall, general manager Kevin Boon told Postmedia News. It’s believed the weathered wood is being sold to Lower Mainland homeowners eager to add a “rustic touch.”

Although wood-rustling sounds like the plot of a particular­ly bad Western novel, the theft of $50,000 worth of fencing could create a dangerous situation as cattle return home from the range this fall.

The wood has been stolen from the sides of highway underpasse­s that allow cows to cross beneath the Coquihalla, explained Boon. “Imagine 200 head of cattle trying to funnel through (when) they find a break in the fence. They could end up on the highway.”

The speed limit on the Coquihalla south of Merritt is 120 km/h and cows returning from the range weigh more than 500 kilograms.

The thefts appear to be linked to a demand for reclaimed wood for home decoration. In August, Merritt RCMP caught three thieves dismantlin­g a cattle corral belonging to the Coquihalla Cattle Company.

Ranch owner Lou Cooke said he drove past his corral one night and returned the next morning to find it destroyed. Police arrested three Surrey men when they returned to load a pile of sawed boards into a rented truck the next day. They had already sold some of the wood to a Lower Mainland lumber company.

“It’s aged by the sun and the wind, and now it’s considered decorative,” said Cooke.

The rancher has had to make do this fall with wire fencing and without the use of certain highway underpasse­s. It will cost as much as $50,000 to replace the wood. “We don’t make that much profit in a year,” said Cooke, who is working with the Cattlemen’s Associatio­n to petition the province to mend the highway fences.

Boon said the province installed the fencing when the Coquihalla was built, but maintenanc­e falls to the ranchers.

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