Forest and Camping Etiquette

When using recreation sites and trails, please practice forest etiquette:

Be careful not to damage the vegetation.
Use only dead and downed trees for firewood, bedding material or other uses. Do not cut live trees or their branches.
Empty sewage from your trailer or camper at sani-stations - never along the road, in or near water.
Keep pets quiet, on a leash and under control.
Avoid activities that may annoy or offend others.
Leave the site tidy - it's your property that you are keeping clean.

If litter barrels are not provided, take your litter and garbage with you. Metal, plastic and glass are unsightly and can cause serious harm if ingested or stepped on. They do not break down in the elements.

Clean fish well away from your camp. Dispose of the entrails by puncturing the bladder and dropping in deep or rushing water. Alternately, burn the entrails thoroughly in a very hot fire.

Use fire safely:
Respect fire closures.
build a campfire only in the fire ring and tend it carefully.
Avoid dumping smouldering barbecue briquets except in designated fire rings.
Use your ashtray, especially when driving along forest roads.

Campfire Safety

Keep fires small. Bring your own wood, if possible. Otherwise, use only down dead wood.

Please consider bringing your own firewood from outside the recreation site or use a gas stove. Continuous gathering of wood from a site depletes the natural surroundings.

Most recreation sites have fire rings. Please leave your fire ring and campsite in even better shape than you found it. Imagine yourself arriving as the next visitor! If there is no fire ring - camp fires are discouraged.

Campfires outside a recreation site: open fires are allowed for cooking or warmth if you follow these rules.
Don't light a fire without making sure that all combustible material is removed down to mineral soil for about 30 cm in every direction; Keep fires more than 3 m from any log, stump, snag, slash, wooden structure or tree;
Keep fires under 1 m in diameter and 1 m in height; Keep a shovel, or a pail full of water, near the fire at all times;
Extinguish all fires before leaving so that the ashes and any unburned material are no longer warm.

Alpine areas - Campfires damage the fragile alpine environment. Avoid lighting fires while in the alpine. Carry and use a camp stove for cooking.

Strong winds - Do not light open fires when winds are strong enough to spread sparks or other burning material.

The rules concerning campfire safety are established in the Forest Fire Prevention and Suppression Regulation of the Forest Practices Code Act of B.C. A person who contravenes these regulations commits an offence.

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