Spawning ground ‘joyride’ = $2,000 fine

Click directly on photo for larger image.

Photo of Jesse Bertram's pickup truck stuck in Waiparous Creek on May 21, 2011, northwest of Calgary. 

On Thursday in a Cochrane courtroom, Bertram was hit with a $2,000 federal fine for driving through the creek, which is home to critical spawning habitat for threatened trout species.

Photograph by: Courtesy, Government of Canada, Handout

Calgarian fined for spawning-ground 'joyride'

By Kelly Cryderman,

Calgary Herald

August 12, 2011

COCHRANE — Jesse Bertram says he was just trying to get his 1987 Dodge pickup truck to the other side of Waiparous Creek during the first full day of camping on the May long weekend.

But Alberta Fish and Wildlife officials were not in a forgiving mood when they came across the Calgary man’s truck stuck in waters up to its hood — smack dab in the middle of spawning grounds for threatened trout species.

“Joyriding at the expense of the environment” is how federal Crown prosecutor Erin Eacott summed it up in a Cochrane courtroom

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