The president of the Eastman SnoPals says one of the warming shacks along the snowmobile trails they maintain has been vandalized and stolen from.

John Flemming says the Eastman SnoPals maintain approximately 320 Kilometres of snowmobile trails between Beausejour and the Whiteshell. He notes they also have five shelters in their care and Agassiz hut was very recently renovated.

"We as a club decided that two years ago we were going to renovate the hut through donations and volunteer labour. We gutted the inside of it, we insulated it, vapour barrier, five new windows, new door, put solar panels on the roof, put LED lighting in the facility and it really looked good, our members were feeling quite proud of it."

Flemming says over the weekend one of their volunteers visited the Agassiz Hut to check up on it and get it ready for exterior renovations and found that the solar panels, battery, charging controller, and light fixtures had been stolen. He notes this was devastating for the volunteers who put so much time and effort into the project.

"The quandary that we are in now is a local business donated the siding and our club members were going to volunteer and redo the outside of this shelter because it is in a beautiful picturesque spot of the Agassiz Forest and now do we do that? do we bother, so someone can come along and vandalize it or steal something else, it is just disheartening for volunteers."

Flemming says they leave the hut open and stocked with wood in the offseason so hikers and quaders can use it as a safe place to stop. He asks anyone with information about the theft to give them a call so that they can notify the authorities.

The Agassiz Hut was set to get new siding