alberta man who ripped up b.c. dinosaur footprints gets 25 days in jail
an alberta man convicted of illegally excavating and removing fossilized dinosaur footprints in northern b.c. has also been fined
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an example of dinosaur tracks found in western canada.
richard t. mccrea
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peace region palaeontology research centre
an alberta man who was convicted of excavating and removing fossilized dinosaur footprints from a protected site in northern b.c. has been sentenced to 25 days in prison and fined $15,000. bennward dale ingram, 39, pleaded guilty to an offence under the b.c. land act for excavating on provincially owned land at the six peaks dinosaur track site near hudson’s hope in june 2020.
he and austin mcnolty, his co-accused, and two other men who remain unidentified drove to the site and used power tools to remove individual tracks from the site over a period of 2½ hours.
large slabs of fossil tracks were either removed, or were damaged by being broken up, and were possibly destroyed.
power tools used included a portable generator, an air compressor and an air chisel. also used were heavy-duty hand tools including sledgehammers and pry bars.
the illegal excavation work only came to an end when two groups of witnesses showed up and began observing the work, after which ingram and the others packed up their tools and fled.
according to the sentencing ruling, the site is one of the largest found in western canada in a generation and is noted for its potential to yield a large dataset.
in 2016, the site was awarded protected status under the land act for five years, a designation that bans any activity or use other than conservation and preservation.
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preliminary studies at the site determined the presence of more than 500 dinosaur footprints. the tracks represent diverse dinosaurs from the early cretaceous epoch who walked on sandy grounds about 125 million years ago.
damaging and removing an individual footprint not only destroys that footprint for its scientific value, it also disturbs the integrity of the remaining tracks and landscapes, provincial court judge darin reeves noted in the sentencing decision.
fossil footprints are frequently linked to indigenous peoples’ traditional stories and the destruction of the tracks occurred in the saulteau first nation’s backyard and was very disturbing, added the judge.
“several additional first nations cultural locations are found close to the (site) and community members are now fearful that additional acts of vandalism may occur in these otherwise remote and culturally important areas.”
court heard that ingram, who lives with his young family in pincher creek, alberta, and works as an excavator operator, has no criminal record and currently supports a refugee from the war in ukraine as well as sponsoring a guatemalan child.
“mr. ingram frankly admitted to the court that he had no excuse for his actions, that he did not appreciate the importance of the site to the first nations or science, and expressed deep remorse for his actions and the damage he created,” said the judge.
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the court received numerous letters of support speaking to the “uncharacteristic” nature of ingram’s offence and his otherwise positive character, said reeve.
no fossil tracks removed from the site have been recovered.
mcnolty, who earlier pleaded guilty to the offence, received a sentence of 30 days jail, a fine of $20,000 and a victim crime surcharge of $3,000.
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