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UPDATE: Alberta Off Highway Vehicle Association worried Porcupine, Livingstone trails will be significantly reduced

Oct 17, 2017 | 2:59 PM

LETHBRIDGE – UPDATE: LNN has spoken with Environment Minister Shannon Phillips regarding the potential for OHV trail/random camping closures in the Castle/Livingstone areas, along with further closures in the Castle Parks. Here are her statements:

“Both of those areas have gone through extensive consultation with local land owners and local grazing-lease holders. People who actually live and make a living in those areas; with municipalities, with recreational groups as well, in addition to the motorized community. So now what we need to do is to a bit more careful analysis on our budgets, and the kinds of investments that we are going to be making to support people’s recreational activity in both Porcupine/Livingstone and Castle. You know, Albertans are looking for places to camp, fish, hunt, hike and all of that needs investment. The previous government didn’t invest in our recreation areas at all. The toilets, the water systems, the roads were left to fall apart. And so as we plan how we’re going to manage these competing demands for recreation and for people to make a living, and to quietly enjoy their property in some of these areas, we still have a little bit of work to do, in terms of how much we’re going to be investing, and where. Some of the things the motorized community have been asking for are quite expensive, and so we do have money set aside, millions of dollars in fact, for Porcupine/Livingstone and other trail areas up on the eastern slopes and in the Castle areas as well. We need to take the time to get those right.” 

On the proposed AOHVA four-point plan: 

“The amount of money that is actually raised through a registration system does not cover the costs of this kind of infrastructure investment and maintenance and renewal. So it’s easy to under estimate how much these investments actually cost the taxpayer. And I know that they have brought such a system in, in B.C., and I believe it brought in $600,000 at first implementation, and it will… I think it’s going to go up now. So we’ll watch carefully how the B.C. system works. I have asked the snowmobile association as well to have a look at this. And potentially we might be able to pilot it with winter recreation. But I think there remains a lot of work to be done around the summer recreation. And I think it would be premature to say that the registration system is under active consideration by government at this time.”  

 

Oct. 16, 2017 – About 100 OHV riders and outdoor enthusiasts came to an information session Monday night at the Norbridge Senior’s Centre in Lethbridge, to find out the details of a four-point plan the Alberta Off-Highway Vehicle Association is proposing to allow continued access to a number of parks and recreational areas.

AOHVA President Bryan Litchfield says he is hoping his organization can work with the Provincial Government to begin building a sustainable trail management system for riders and random campers, rather than potentially reducing or eliminating access to them altogether in the near future.

 “We educate, rider safety and environmental, responsible riding and that, and that we have also introduced a user fee for OHV users and random campers, and anybody that is using public lands, so that we can maintain the trails and the random camping areas at no cost to the taxpayer. It will be the users that will be paying it.”
 
He explains there are 165,000 registered OHVers in the province that pay $54 dollars a year, with the money going into general revenue for the government.
 
Litchfield says only $500,000 of more than $50 million in fees collected between 2009-2017 has gone into trail maintenance.
 
His group is hoping  $7 million collected from yearly fees will go to an increase in park enforcement, while the group says they’re also hoping to tack on another $50 fee for trail users, for a total yearly fee of $104 per registered rider.
 
The extra $50, would be used solely to build and re-builld trails, and to maintain them.
 
Litchfield says while at this point there’s a planned phase-out of OHV access to the Castle Parks, his group believes Environment Minister Shannon Phillips will also announce significant reductions to trails and open camping spots in the Porcupine Hills and Livingtone areas as early as this fall.
 
He says it would be devastating to thousands of riders who have been resonsibly enjoying the back country for decades.
 
“They [the province] have come out with a recreational draft plan that will cut out 2,200 kms of OHV trails, and random camping in the Porcupine Hills and Livingstone….there’s about 3,000 [kms]. If that. So it’s a substantial reduction. It’s not a loop trail. It’s drive-in drive-out. Put it on your trailer, drive 100 yards. Drive-in, drive-out. There’s no connectivity or enjoyable experience.”
 
Litchfield also claims the potential reduction of trail accessibility will actually harm the environment even more with an increase in traffic, and wear and tear on the remaining trails.
 
The group is urging users to speak with local and provincial politicians, and to sign a petition asking for the province to adopt their four-point plan.
 
Here is the plan in full, as it appears on the aohva.com website:

We are committed to:

  1. Working with the Government of Alberta, Land Use Framework staff and AOHVA experienced members in designing and developing trails and trail heads that are sustainable and environmentally-sound and repairing damaged trails.
  2. Dedicating 100% of a new OHV User Fee to tackling important issues like habitat protection and proper trail construction and maintenance in partnership with AOHVA, Clubs and volunteers under an accountable, transparent AOHVA Service Delivery Structure.
  3. Ensuring the Government of Alberta provides law enforcement agencies with the tools and mandate to fully enforce the law.
  4. Building a better environmental and trail experience. Alberta can lead the way in OHV trail development by putting the onus on organizations like AOHVA and its like-minded partners to be responsible for environmental stewardship as a means of eliminating improper use of the back country.