Trouble with vandals is on the rise at the Tabor Mountain Recreation Area.
Meant to be a place where hikers, mountain bikers, horse riders, snowmobilers and ATVers can enjoy their passions without a long drive out of the city, it's also become a go-to place for more destructive pursuits.
Gates have been ripped out, bridges destroyed, signs torn down and garbage dumped - and then there's the shooting.
Bullet holes have been found on all manner of things, from signs to locks, while a pair of gravel pits have become informal shooting ranges with an unwanted television and discarded propane tanks being some of the targets despite the risk of stray bullets flying into nearby trails.
It's all become too much for Ken Hodges, executive director of the Tabor Mountain Recreation Society. He is asking anyone who sees something suspicious to call the RCMP and "if you're one of these vandals, how about thinking a little bit?"
Prince George RCMP Cpl. Sonja Blom advises an observe, record and report approach to giving the police the heads up.
"The best information you can get is descriptions of the people, if they are in a vehicle a description of the vehicle, a licence plate number if you have it, and if they do leave the area, the direction that they're traveling," she said.
Charges for someone caught damaging property or firing off a gun in an area where they're not supposed to can range from mischief to careless use of a firearm to criminal negligence, she said.
"If you see something, report it," Blom said. "We cover a huge jurisdiction with a finite number of resources so we really do rely on the public to be the eyes and ears out there and especially in outlying areas like Tabor Mountain."
Since 2011, nearly 19,000 hours of volunteer work have been put into building up the complex that adds up to 407 kilometres of trails and more than two dozen new recreation sites, making it home to the largest trail system in British Columbia.
"All of this is for the public," Hodges said.
He said the trouble really started to happen in the past year or so with the recent improvements to the trails. A particular problem has been people tearing down gates so they can drive their trucks into areas where the trails can't handle their loads.
