Dell on Foreign Ownership & Investment

I don't know how things are where you are, but it's raining cats and dogs here: sure to help keep the fire risk low.

I'm looking for feedback on the situation outlined below :

A foreigner buys a lakefront property in Canada: everyone in the area has always traipsed through the hilly forest to get to the lake at the top. It's a deep cold lake, fed by a series of ground springs and its full of Walters. I'm talking big fish, pristine water, Canada's finest resources: stocked since great-great grandpappy's day by hardy men who backpacked fingerlings in to provide for future generations.

The foreigner spends a good number of years and dollars improving his property: an investment in the future, you might say. The road he builds up to the lake is gated from the time of purchase, but left unlocked as contractors come and go. Tresspassing continues in the owner's absences. After the contractors leave, the gate is securely locked. The owner, has done nothing to confront trespassing: indeed, locals always leave his property as they found it, minus a fish or two. Now worth a small fortune, the foreign owner's vision is perfectly fulfilled: generated electricity, water system, fancy heated water line, solar generated back-up, septic system, all those trees and the finest fishing, too!

Another form of access to this jewel of a lake has never been an option. Due to heavy terrain and cliffs, only a couple of hardy souls have managed to scale the cliffside using special gear. It's just not something your ordinary man is willing or able to undertake: daunting task.

Nothing happens until the owner arrives one sunny day to find a group of locals in their boats fishing on the lake. Then, all hell breaks loose. The local constabulatory are called in: the trespassers are warned not to return.

Within a few months of the completion of this magnificent wilderness domicile, the place burns to the ground at the owner's next absence.

The foreigner is paid on his claim for damages. The locals resume their fishing, keeping their backs to the burned wreckage.

Who is to blame that this event got to the point of arson? Should the foreigner have been confronted regarding his intentions? Should the foreigner have spoken up in the beginning? Why do you think the two parties weren't talking to each other? Did separate agendas play a role in all this? Whose resources are we talking about? and to what degree can they be owned, shared or denied? Does the foreigner come out ahead on this situation? or do the locals fare best?

Fires are serious business. I was raised with Smokey: "Remember...only you can prevent forest fires!"

I'm off to my own special spot this evening, for a last cast in the fading light. Dorg is turning circles at my feet knowing the tackle box on the table can only mean one thing: we're going to the lake. Dorg is one smart dog.