bombs away, but at what cost?

Portions of First Nation reserve lands were appropriated as far back as a century ago by what is now the Department of National Defence, for use as artillery and tank ranges, mortar fields and other live-fire training exercises. Almost a century of military use has left some 2,800 hectares of Okanagan band land seeded with a lethal harvest of buried unexploded ordnance, known in military terms as UXOs. It has rendered prime development areas with rangeland vistas and spectacular views of the resort mecca of Okanagan Lake largely useless for anything but grazing lands for cattle and horses.