The coordinator of the Valley Fish and Game Club’s Wilderness Watch program isn’t surprised the five-year trial over Roosevelt elk killed at Cowichan Lake has been delayed again.

The federal trial, which resumed last week, was adjourned until January.

“I feel that the longer the trial is delayed, the less that people remember this incident even took place,” said Denis Martel of Lake Cowichan.

“We musn’t forget that five people were charged with very serious offences.”

The case charges Sandy Morris Jr., Bonnie George, Ben Sam and Patrick John Edwards with dozens of offences under the Wildlife Act.

“The court was dealing with the evidence of Kim Brunt, who is the Crown’s wildlife expert and biologist,” said John Blackman, Crown counsel in the federal matter.

“He spoke to some of the factors of concern in respect to the vulnerability of the elk population that surround Lake Cowichan. His evidence has now been concluded and the case has been adjourned to go over to January 6 through January 9 in Duncan for further evidence on other issues.”

It’s unknown when the legal proceedings, which began in November 2003 when charges were sworn, will conclude.

“Certainly the bulk of the evidence has been heard, though there is a possibility that defence counsel might call rebuttal evidence,” said Blackman. “It certainly will not be finished in January.”

In the years since the trial began the fifth man charged in the matter, John Sylvester, has died.

He and the four still on trial were charged with a series of offenses, including hunting out of season, hunting with a rifle with a rim fire cartridge, hunting during prohibited hours, hunting using a light, discharging a firearm in a no-shooting zone and failing to remove the edible portions of a game carcass, for the alleged hunts in the Youbou and Honeymoon Bay areas between November 2001 and March 2002.

Conservation officers found the carcasses of a dozen Roosevelt elk along North Shore Road, a common winter feeding ground for the animals.

“We need to keep the elk trial alive,” said Martel, whose Wilderness Watch group patrols the area on a regular basis watching for illegal hunting and other potential wildlife violations.

“I truly believe that if the elk in the Cowichan Valley, (including creek drainages off North Shore Road) were left alone to increase their population numbers, that there would be no problem allowing limited entry elk hunts and other elk allocations for various valid allotments."

With a file from Krista Siefken