ATLIN ROAD The Yukon government is making a bad situation even worse, says an Atlin Road lumber manufacturer.

Jean-Francois Nantel of Atlin Road Lumber said the destructive use of a winter-access logging road by forestry officials this week is unacceptable.

Apparently, he said, forestry officials with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources were in the area continuing their investigation into logs seized in February from the property of sawmill operator Jeff Gilbert.

But any private operator leaving that type of surface damage behind would be in serious trouble with Yukon land use authorities, he said in an interview Tuesday.

Nantel said there is no way anyone would get a land use permit to create the mess left behind by officials who were in there this week.

'What this shows is the government feels they can do anything and not be accountable for it,' said Nantel.

To add insult to injury, he said, the forestry officials were using slabs taken in the February seizure under a court order to fill in their ruts and make the road more passable.

Nantel said furthermore, Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang has not responded to his May 9 letter detailing a concern related to the seizure, and requesting the matter be addressed by the minister outside the court process.

The letter emphasizes that by admission of the territorial Department of Justice, Nantel is not a subject of the investigation around the wood seizure.

Nantel is Gilbert's neighbour, and often works with him in the manufacturing business, as he owns and operates a planer.

He maintains in his letter to Lang at the time of the seizure, he had some lodgepole pine logs stored on Gilbert's property. The logs were seized along with Gilbert's wood.

But the court approved warrant authorizes the government's forestry branch to only seize spruce, he points out to the minister.

When forestry and RCMP authorities seize lodgepole pine when they are authorized to seize white spruce only, it calls into question their ability to tell the basic difference between spruce and pine, the letter suggests.

'It is an unfortunate situation, but we are just unable to tolerate this anymore,' Nantel says in his letter May 9 to Lang. 'Those logs were promised to a customer and are now unavailable.'

Nantel points out the pine that was seized was obtained under a Yukon government permit issued to him, and he's already paid the stumpage fees on the wood.

Nantel did not want to mention what he was seeking from the minister in terms of compensation.

'We would appreciate a response from your office within 21 days from the reception of this letter, otherwise, we will conclude that you would rather we pursue our legal option on this claim,' the letter states.

Nantel said in the interview the three weeks is up, and the Yukon public need to know about the conduct of forestry officials earlier this week.

Cabinet spokesman Peter Carr said Lang would not be commenting on the matter, as it is an issue before the court.

Lyle Henderson, acting assistant deputy minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, confirmed this morning that a team of RCMP investigators were in the area this week continuing their work, in the company of forestry staff.

He said if there are complaints of improper land use they should be forwarded to the manager of the land use branch and the matter will be looked into.

The RCMP, Henderson emphasized, has the lead in this investigation.

Karen Baltgailis of the Yukon Conservation Society, who travelled to the logging road Thursday, said she will be contacting the forestry branch to make inquiries.

'If indeed it was the RCMP and or forestry employees that did that to the road, as we are told it was, then I am pretty concerned.

'Certainly, no logger would be able to operate in those wet conditions.'

She said whoever chewed up the road was passing through boggy wetland areas; areas that are in need of the greatest protection, because they are the most susceptible during wet conditions.

At one point, she noted, ATVs drove through a stream crossing, where there is now a mud hole with water running through it.

There are also areas where the ATVs have left the road and driven over bog in an attempt to avoid a particular wet section of the road, she said.

Baltgailis said she was contacted by Gilbert earlier this week and asked for advice about who he could file a complaint with.

She said she told him it appears the officials who made the mess, are normally the officials who he would contact.

Gilbert has insisted all along he's done nothing wrong, and while he's not been formally charged with anything, officials are suggesting he's guilty of taking wood from Crown land without authorization.

Gilbert said he purchased the wood from a logger who has shown the Yukon forestry branch a letter from the Carcross-Tagish First Nation granting him permission to cut the wood.

Forestry officials seized the wood at his property on Dec. 9 by placing seizure notices on the pile of logs.

Gilbert maintains he suggested to forestry officials back then they talk with the Carcross-Tagish First Nation to straightened out the matter, though he never heard anything back.

Forestry officials and RCMP officers from a special forest investigation unit in B.C. showed up on Gilbert's property in February to remove the wood, while he and his family were visiting the Philippines.

Some have suggested the cost of the 10 or 11 dump trucks over three days, and other heavy equipment required to move the wood, could be $30,000 or more.

Gilbert maintains the wood was completely secure where it was, that nobody was going to touch it when it was plastered with seizure notices while the dispute remained unsettled.

Nantel said they just learned last week when Gilbert was out touring the area with his kids that not all of the wood was taken to Whitehorse. A load was taken and placed on a piece of Crown land next to the the logging road, with no seizure notices attached, he said.

It was learned seizure notices had also been removed from a pile of logs that were included in the seizure, but had never left the landing where they were stacked before being hauled out of the bush, he said.

The government, said Nantel, has taken a pile of wood from a perfectly secure location, paid thousands to move it unnecessarily, and has indeed placed some of it in an unsecured area.

There are no seizure notices on the piles, and there's nothing that would stop anyone from coming along and removing some of the wood, he said.

He said to add insult to injury, officials threw the seized slabs down into the mud to help them get through the deep ruts in the road they created.