Alberta forestry staff have been warned to avoid a wooded area south of Grande Prairie after a land-claim dispute led to armed threats.

A message circulated through Alberta's forestry community Wednesday warned that a group claiming to be freemen-on-the-land have occupied a cabin about 80km south of Grande Prairie and refuse to leave.

"They have reportedly occupied his trapper's cabin," read the email, "and indicated to him that they 'will defend it with all necessary force'."

The group has occupied the cabin since May, according to one of the three trappers whose registered lines have been taken over.

Though he would not give many details and asked his name not be used, the trapper said the situation escalated when the freemen began brandishing weapons to get their point across.

"It's gotten scary," he said. "It's not just them pretending that they're free. Now they're threatening people."

RCMP in the area will not comment on the situation but did acknowledge that they are aware of it.

Paul Rolfe works for Bonnett's Energy, an oil and gas company that has worked in the area, and said he quickly advised all of his staff to avoid the area upon receiving the email.

"I sent (the email) to all of our managers and office managers to be leery of where we're sending our crews," said Rolfe, adding none of his company's workers are presently working in the area.

He described the area, where he said he has worked for years, as being near an operating gas plant and suspects there may be more interests involved than just trapping.

"It's a forest access road, it's also an access road to a million wells that are down there," said Rolfe. "There's a production facility down there so that's likely the cause of all this."

The email to forestry staff says the area in question is in the vicinity of Misery Mountain and Karr Creek and says Alberta Forestry and Fish and Wildlife are aware of the threat.

The freemen on the land have been in the news in recent weeks as a man who claimed to belong to the group was arrested in Calgary after declaring a rental property he was squatting on an embassy.

Mario Antonacci - who also went by Andreas Pirelli - refused to pay the full amount of rent at the property and instead did unwanted renovations to the property, leaving his landlord the cleanup bill.

Antonacci was arrested Sept. 27 on a Canada-wide warrant.

david.lazzarino@sunmedia.ca

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