Sackville area Trans Canada Trail blocker fined $1,200

Upper Sackville property ownerMary Fawcetthas been fined$1,200for blocking the section of the Trans Canada trail that bisects her property.

• Upper Sackville woman blocking part of the Trans-Canada Trail

Fawcett put up a barricade across the trail in May2015 because she says the built-up TransCanada trail acts as a snow fence in the winter, leaving her fences damaged and in need of repair.

She needs the pasture for her beef cattleand horses, but doesn't want to shoulder the expense of mending the fences every year.

Rather than risk having her animals on the trail with walkers and cyclists, she put up a barricade and a sign warning people to stay off that section of trail.

"We've tried to tell (the Department of Natural Resources) that if it was lowered there would be less damage, (and if it was) ditched properly then there wouldn't be half as much fencing to do or maintenance, but they don't listen," said Fawcett.

Fawcett said she was asked to take the fence down, but refused. She was charged in the fall of 2015.

• Province charging farmers with blocking Trans Canada Trail

"They actually wanted to charge me...$37,000," she said.

Fawcett and her son John Fawcett were both named in the criminal charges.

"But my lawyer talked to the crown attorney ... and said if one of us would plead they'd take the other one off and they'd charge us for one day."

Fawcett admits, she did block the fence, and pleaded guilty to two charges. The first is unlawfully blocking Crown land, and the second is failure to comply with an order to remove the blockade.

"So I owe them $1,200."

Even though the blockade is down, for Fawcett the matter isn't over.

"The fencing I had to do on the home side of the trail because my cattle were hungry and I had to put them out," she complained."The far side of the trail is still really bad."

She saidthere was a promise made to keep the fencing up, and because the promise was not kept, Fawcett is considering suing the provincial government for fencing costs, and court costs.

"The government doesn't seem to understand or care," she remarked.

Recreational users

For regular users of the trail, the removal of the cattle fences blocking the trail is a happy sight.

Dan Reyno goes for a walk nearly everyday, and when the blockade was up, he said he would just cut his outing short, and head back home.

"My first walk this spring I discovered it was open, I was quite happy," he said.

The CBC reached out to the Department of Natural Resources, but did not receive a response.