Time is money, no less so in farming than in any other industry, says Brent Kelly.
So during the peak of growing season when heavy farm vehicles are stalled along the dike trail in Boundary Bay Regional Park it would be great if people could keep that in mind.
Kelly, and other Delta farmers, use the dike trail several times a day to move heavy equipment from one part of their farm operation to another. And mostly, that happens without incident, except for Sunday (July 17) when he was stalled for 20 minutes by a cyclist who stood and blocked the trail.
“I asked him a couple of times to move, I’m in a hurry,” Kelly said Monday.
But the cyclist told him to move instead.
Kelly, who grows potatoes and cranberries, waited until another cyclist came along and told the first cyclist to let the farmer through. Meanwhile, five farmworkers were also idled, waiting for the sprayer to get to the potato field.
“It doesn’t happen all the time, but it happens quite often,” said Kelly, who added there are lots of signs along the dike saying that farm vehicles have the right of way.
They’re not trying to annoy people, he said.
He added that farmers have been using the dike trails for more than a century and wants government to explain why farmers have to use the dike trail. He mainly accesses the dike via 96th Street.
“There’s simply no other access,” he said, adding he’s reduced the time he uses the trail on weekends. “Despite what people think, farming is an industry.”
He says 95 per cent of people will give them the right of way.
“People need to be aware we’re in a time-sensitive business,” he added.
The dike trail runs from Tsawwassen to Mud Bay, and is 17 km long and about five metres wide.
Clarence DeBoer, with Eagle View Farms, on 88th Street, said he has built roads on his farm allowing his vehicles to mostly avoid using the dike trail.
“The vast majority of the public is good,” he said.
But it just takes one who isn’t to ruin a day for a farmer who is constantly juggling competing demands under tight time constraints.
“The more you’re there (on the dike trail) the more it happens,” he said. “The weekends are brutal, the number of people on it.”
Metro Vancouver’s website asks people to give farm vehicles the right of way by standing to the side, off the travelled surface, “so farmers can continue their work to produce food for all of us.”
Metro Vancouver parks does rec maintenance and bylaw enforcement on the trail and has never heard of such an incident, a staff member added after an inquiry from the Optimist.
Metro Vancouver said it hasn't heard of any similar encounters on the trail previously.
The regional government also says there are six "Share the Trail" signs along the trail, while the City of Delta has installed four "farm vehicles have the right of way" signs at access points at 64th, 72nd, 104th and 112th avenues.
“The use of the dike for farming has come long before the (recreational) part of it,” said Liberal MLA for Delta South Ian Paton, a lifelong farmer in the area.
But it’s common for the public to show their frustration towards farm vehicles, Paton said.
“People treat you like you’re an absolute second-class citizen because you’re driving a tractor,” said Paton.
