On Friday you heard from Nigel Petillo, a land activist who says that illegal loggers had run amok in his start-up community, Sagana Heights. The situation culminated in an armed Petillo going live on Facebook with an extended and impassioned rant, then setting a tire fire on the road. Later, police officers arrived at the scene to de-escalate the situation.
But Petillo maintains that there is criminal activity happening in the forest near his community, yet the Forestry Department is turning a blind eye.
However, the Deputy Chief Forestry Officer says Petillo's loggers are just phantoms since there is no evidence of illegal activity.
Courtney Menzies spoke with him today and has this story.
Land Developer Nigel Petillo fanned the flames of a fight with the Forestry Department on Thursday night after he claimed they were doing nothing to stop the illegal loggers within the Sagana Heights community.
He claimed he has spoken on social media about the issue numerous times, and decided to take measures into his own hands by lighting a tire on fire in the middle of the road. He explained it this morning on Sunup on 7.
Nigel Petillo, Land Activist
"I put up videos over and over the show that illegal logging had been taking place on the works we have been doing but worse than that it's not like we don't know illegal logging is taking place countrywide you know. I know you heard somewhere illegal logging is taking place and if you can hear it then that means that the authorities have been hearing it too but for some reason they turn a blind eye to it and well I can't I can't just sit by go in my bed and knowing that somebody just destroyed the roads again and somebody chop down somebody land unnecessarily I decided that I had to take action that night and it is what it is I had to do what I had to do."
"Them loggers they know weh di goh on. They don't do it in the day. They know in the daytime someone is watching them. Night, and especially when it's raining. And then that is what destroys the road the most."
He added that while the police did come out that night, he expected them to storm the forest and apprehend the loggers, but was sorely disappointed.
Nigel Petillo, Land Activist
"I was expecting that we would go in there that night I was expecting we would go to the back of that busy there and find those people in the act. We were supposed to be able to take away their tractor take away their chainsaw whatever it is that they utilize to do the illegal logging and I understand that is the protocol that is the law if you find anybody doing illegal logging they will go to court and hopefully they will go to jail and pay a fine or something if they had taken the step that night we would have found someone on the grounds."
But it wasn't until the next morning that the Forestry officers along with the police made their way out to Sagan Heights. But the Deputy Chief Forest Officer said that it wouldn't have matter what time they went out, since there was no evidence of illegal logging.
John Pinelo, Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"I gathered, along with the chief we spoke and we gathered a team I called Mr. Petillo, we got two police from Roaring Creek police station and we were out there by nine o' clock in the morning. Mr. Petillo informed my officers what he thought was going on and so my officers drove in with him and the police and we also took a drone. And we drove in and we found no evidence of anybody with heavy duty equipment driving in that area. If there was heavy duty equipment, we would have seen the road all ripped up with tractor tires because that's the only thing you can go in there and do illegal logging with. You need tractors to pull the lags out. So we saw no evidence of any heavy duty equipment on the road. We did see evidence of vehicles. Those are people who buy land and they go and clear their land. So that was the traffic that we saw on the road."
"Mr. Petillo was in the vehicle with us, accompanied us. He saw the pictures. He agreed."
Pinelo also explained that even if there were loggers there, they'd come up empty handed since there's nothing of great value to be found.
John Pinelo, Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"You wouldn't find anything in there that is of major value. I mean, there is a cost for you to go in there and log legally. In my opinion, cost more to go in and log illegally because you have to hide."
"The cost benefit wouldn't be there, any Logger would not waste their time going in there and finding some small little trees that you wouldn't have any major value. The most you would find back there are the bush sticks that people used to construct."
"But there's not no major timber value in that area. We confirmed that the landowners had logged that area in 2020 and in 2022. So, common Sense would tell you there probably wouldn't be much material back there for you to steal because the owners of the land had logged the area before they started subdividing it and selling it out."
Pinelo stated that while they do their best to stop illegal loggers, Sagana Heights is private land, and it's up to the landowners to ensure that their estates are secured.
John Pinelo, Deputy Chief Forest Officer
"The onus of protection of your private land is on the private owner. So, we, the Forest Department, cannot be called out for not looking over your private land and the activities that go on in there. We will help, we will assist like we did with Mr. Petillo. But you cannot blame the Forest Department if something is going on in your property that you are not addressing."
Pinelo says that he has already asked Petillo to make a clarification to the media, which he has not.
