REC SITE: The Times They Are A-Changin'
By Sara Golling
New Shelters Coming, Old Shelters Going
Under the community-generated Management Plan for the Rossland Range Recreation Site, some new day-use shelters will be built to replace the older, rodent-infested but beloved structures that so many of us have happily skied or snowshoed to, and used to warm up, toast sandwiches or heat up soup, and talk with whoever else came by. We will end up with fewer shelters, but they will be mouse and rat-proof, probably insulated to require less wood to heat them, and they will have outhouses that won’t be too frightening or too yucky to use.
Recently, students from Selkirk College’s Recreation, Fish and Wildlife program got some hands-on experiential education in “Parks and Recreation Management” by helping to tear down 2 defunct, non-maintained and deteriorated old huts in the new Rec Site. “Lost” cabin was already pretty shaky on its rotting and unstable feet. Now it’s gone. “Buffalo Jump” had already been taken over by pack rats and then demolished by a fallen tree; all that remained was to remove the mess.
So what’s wrong with a few cute mousies?
Deer mice may carry hantavirus — a virus that causes Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. Perhaps our mice don’t carry it yet, but perhaps they do, or they may carry it in the near future. Hantavirus was first recognized in BC in 1994, with 3 cases diagnosed. There is no specific treatment, medication or cure. The risk? About 1/3 to 1/2 of people in North America who develop Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome die. That’s a very high percentage, so although the chances of actually developing it may be low, the risk of dying from it is unacceptably high — worth taking precautions. A lack of mouse poop in our shelters won’t hurt us, but breathing tiny specks of dust containing mouse poop or dried mouse urine could possibly kill us. Sweeping a floor with mouse droppings on it, or chopping kindling in a hut with a dirt or dirty floor are both excellent ways to risk breathing infected dust. So do we really need to make the shelters rodent-proof? That’s what I call a no-brainer. Cases of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome are fairly rare — let’s do our best to make them non-existent in our area.
New Mt. Lepsoe Shelter in the works:
A keen crew is designing and preparing to build a new shelter in Lepsoe Basin, and the Kootenay Mountaineering Club (KMC) has generously volunteered to fund it. The crew has already generated a plan and a complete set of CAD drawings showing all stages of the construction. It will have a separate woodshed, and an outhouse with a view. The shelter is intended to be completed by October of this year. I plan to pay it a visit this coming winter. Other people are planning other shelters, too, so here’s to a good snow year!
