The spectre of sensitive parkland being chewed up by all-terrain vehicles or scarred by mining has Greater Victoria conservation and parks officials worried, while the province refuses to act.

At issue is the provincial government's refusal to put reserve status on some 1,380 hectares of Sooke Hills property purchased by The Land Conservancy of B.C. to be protected as a park. When a property has reserve status, no new mining claims can be staked there.

Some four wheelers, who used to make extensive of the Sooke Hills property before it was bought for park land, have taken out free-miner licences and are bypassing access gates under the premise of staking claims, TLC executive assistant Ian Fawcett said Wednesday.

A longer-term worry would be the prospect of someone wanting to mine in the park area, he said.

"The issue of mining obviously is a concern to us," Fawcett said. "We don't want that kind of activity to be happening in there. It's Conservancy's land. It was bought exclusively for people in this region who had voted for it with the parks levy a few years ago.

"The other issue that affects us as well is the access that so-called free miners are trying to get to stake their claims or to do their prospecting."

Capital Regional District chairman Christopher Causton has written the province, asking it to reconsider its position.

But Energy and Mines Minister Richard Neufeld said the province never before has been faced with a request to put reserve status on privately held land, and has no policy to deal with such a request.

And while he's sympathetic with both the CRD's and TLC's concerns over potential damage by four-wheel vehicles, Neufeld said the reserve status is not necessarily the right mechanism to use to control the activity.

"I don't think that the province and its no-staking reserve is something that we should be using to deal with those kind of problems," Neufeld said.

"That isn't the answer. There's some other issues they can deal with there, I think, and maybe the CRD and the ministry can work something out."

TLC bought the land last year in conjunction with the provincial and federal governments and the CRD. The land is being turned over to the CRD a parcel at a time over five years for use as regional park as the district makes good on its annual instalment of $600,000.

Neufeld said the province is not giving the green light to mining in the Sooke Hills -- Greater Victoria's green Western backdrop.

"We're not saying there should be mining out there."

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