(Facebook/ Rural Crime Alerts Group-RM's 463,489,490,491,520,521)

By Nigel Maxwell

Technology

Anti-trespassing app goes online across Saskatchewan

Jul 18, 2021 | 8:00 AM

Rural property owners in Saskatchewan have a new tool at their finger tips to help address issues related to trespassing, illegal hunting and even the spread of Clubroot.

The Sask Lander mobile app was first developed in 2019, and tested on a smaller scale last year in the Rural Municipality (RM) of Shellbrook. Reeve Doug Oleksyn said the technology has the potential to be really useful.

“It has potential on the rec side especially and with the trespass laws that were going to come in, but never materialized, I think it would have an even better use if they were in place,” he said.

The development of the app in 2019, followed amendments made to the province’s Trespass to Property Act earlier in the year. Under those changes, individuals must get permission from rural land owners before going on their property. Oleksyn said he likes the fact as a land owner, the app allows him to designate the use of the land, whether it’s hunting for large animal, water fowl, or just recreational use. Oleksyn has also heard the app may one day allow a person to see where exactly they are with respect to someone’s property.

(Submitted photo/ Aldo Scribante)

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One of the app’s co-founder Sauvelm Mclean explained that while there was only 30 property owners involved in the testing phase, the discussion helped shape the platform.

“The value for us was more just getting people in front of it. It was more about what that interaction looked like and that really informed the improvements we made,” he said.

In addition to land owners, local crime watch groups were also consulted as well as conservation officers. Those discussions led to other app improvements and upgrades such as the ability for incident reporting, as well as uploading data such as crop history. McLean explained that while they cannot stop trespassing, they can help reduce the number of incidents by providing the right information.

“We are not giving away any land owner information, it stays private, but you’ll be able to look at a parcel of land and go ‘oh I can hunt in this or I can whatever and that’s a huge value add,” he said.

Aldo Scribante is the app’s other co-founder and explained often times people will trespass because there is no convenient way to get into contact with the land owner.

“They don’t know who owns the property or they are not bothered to try and track down the land owner. If the land owner isnt operating on the parcel then often trespassing happens,” he said.

(Submitted photo/ Aldo Scribante)

Scribante explained the most important piece of information gathered last year, was to build the platform around the land owner, and to make it simple and user friendly.

“A lot of applications in the similar space either try to bypass the land owner or try to make it much easier for the rec user and we figured that was the wrong approach,” he said.

Early access to the platform started on June 1, and while both Scribante and McLean explained they want to spend the next two months focusing on land owners, they aim to open the app up to recreational users in time for hunting season.

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nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell