Regulation Question
 

Hey guys. The topic of accesseing a lake for fishing purposes comes up now and then in the fishing forum. Supposedly the lake is public property but you might get in trouble for crossing private property to get to it.
I have been given permission on a new area near Elk Island park to trap. There is a large slough nearby that comes right up to the road. Having a real hard time trying to find out who owns the land around it. Even the landowners nearby have never been able to find out who owns it.
Anyways, this large slough has a big beaver lodge, and you can see a lot of damage to trees in the surrounding area. I could park on the roadside and walk onto this large slough without placing one foot on private property. I doubt the landowners who own the surrounding land would mind, and may even be thankfull to cull the beavers. Of course they may also not want the beavers culled. It is in a holding co. name and owners are from and maybe still living in Pakistan.
I guess what I'm asking is would it be legal to trap on the slough as I am not stepping on any private property. Biggest problem really is that there is no-one to sign a permission form. Anyone had experiance with this type of situation?

I trap in a similarly described location except that I found the landowners who border the slough and asked them for permission. Like you said, they wanted the beaver gone and they were happy for me to trap there. Wrt the holding co. on the county map.....I would suggest going to the county office and inquiring who the owner is. They should know who is paying the taxes on the land. I know someone around here that has holding co on a quarter that he owns on the current county map.

I don't know what the legality of accessing the slough from the road is however I would, out of courtesy, contact the landowners before trapping there in order to avoid any conflict. IMO you should treat that slough as private property just like anywhere else.

Likely the county could give you permission to trap from the road allowance on their easement, but limited to that easement. Of course it would be nice if somebody would sign a permission document for you.

There is a nature trail in a nearby town that had beaver trouble and the town contatced me to get em out and gave me written permission . As I was setting traps one evening , a gentleman came along the trail and asked what I was doing and who gave me permission . Told him the town had and he informed me in a nice way it was not theres to give permission on . He said it was him to grant permission , he was the local F&W officer at the time and wrote me up a damage permit . I'd contact your local office first , even if local residents think its alright to go . :)

This is not a lake or a river...it's a slough. As such, I believe it is private property. It is not a lake. I'd be very careful prior to accessing it. Just my thoughts.

It could be crown as the beds and shore of any naturally occurring semi-permanent or permanent waterbody my be claimed by the Crown under Section 3 of the Public Lands Act. The public lands officer for the area would be able have the wetland assessed to determine its ownership.

If it is not private property ninja, wouldn't you need to be a registered trapper to trap it?

This and you legally need a signed form in order to trap any private land.

LC

All good points and suggestions, guys. Moose and Lefty esp. bring up the catch 22 of needing a permission form, when at the same time permission might not be allowed from a landowner or occupant. Also begs the question of what is a lake and what is a slough (or pond), and do they all belong to the crown? Do you need a seperate form once you step onto the ice?
All I was trying to do is figure out a way to legally trap some beavers on a very large slough that is right by the road. I will definitly try to contact landowner of adjacent land and speak to county and F&W to clarify regs. Plenty of other places for this resident trapper to get a few beavers in the meantime. Would like to try tanning some beaver and bear season is quickly approaching.

Private or public ?
 

If the land title states 160 acres then the total slough on that land is private, should be able to check with land titles or county office.

This is not correct. Crown own bed and shore is often not reflected on title. Please contact a Public Lands officer to have a determination made. Crown water bodies, especially wetlands are very rarely reflected on title.

Hmmmmm.. so all I have to do is contact the landowner who is overseas, anyone who might be renting the land, the County, F&W, AB public lands office and perhaps the fed. govt. who might control the waterbody. Sounds simple enough.

that's the easy part....trapping beaver under the ice is the hard part

Oh, yeh, forgot about that. At the rate I'm going I'll be using my canoe to get onto the lodge. Thank goodness I have my boating licence.

You won't know that until you go to the county office. Like I wrote, I know someone who has holding co on the county map for one of the quarters that he owns. I think that at the time that the map was made a pending divorce effected what was put on the map.

One things for certain Dave, I'll need some of your colony traps this spring.

Some counties have a few crown quarters that are trapped. As far as I remember, a resident trapper can trap on crown quarters within some counties. I think this only applies to crown land surrounded by private land. Crown land connected to the big crown lands are controlled by registered traplines.

The resident trapper has to apply for trapping permission for the said crown land location from the crown and pay a minimal fee per year to have the right to trap it.
This was the way it was when I looked into it but may have been recently changed. Best to ask F&W authorities.

I trap a slough that has a lot of crown leased land right up against it. I went through F&W and they told me to get permission slips for the crown leased and I was good to go for trapping the slough. No fee for approval and no fee to trap. Based on what they told me, trapping crown land isn't much different than hunting it and they don't charge you anything to participate in either activity. Obviously, it can't be part of an RFMA and restrictions would likely apply to some types of crown land (ie. natural areas?). North of Edmonton here there's quite a bit of crown land available that isn't part of an RFMA.