The Rover-Landers of BC

Is anyone in the valley able to attend this meeting tonight:

http://www.tca.gov.bc.ca/sites_trails/

I've been harping about this initiative on the very inactive 4WDABC web forum, but since we're a big user of many of the trails and with our work on the Whipsaw, we should be represented at this meeting. Sorry for the late notice, but with Founders Day happening last weekend, I was a little busy to remember this...

I think their definition of trails is faulty, in that they are calling deactivated logging roads, and railroad beds trails. It seems that anything they can get designated as a trail is immediately taken away from motorized use, and from my point of view, much of what this group is likely to designate as a trail is actually historically a road of some sort. We need to be on this. We need to ensure that we are looked upon as stakeholders here. The only way that's gonna happen is if we get involved.

There are also meetings in Cranbrook on the 15th, Kamloops on the 20th (which I'll attend) and Williams Lake on the 22nd of January.

Dave

I have submitted the Email that I presented to the club at the last meeting.I really think that in the best interests of all of us, that more people should make their feelings known....The more the better!!!!!!
The website is http://www.tca.gov.bc.ca/sites_trails/i ... rategy.htm

Dave wrote:Is anyone in the valley able to attend this meeting tonight:

http://www.tca.gov.bc.ca/sites_trails/

I've been harping about this initiative on the very inactive 4WDABC web forum, but since we're a big user of many of the trails and with our work on the Whipsaw, we should be represented at this meeting. Sorry for the late notice, but with Founders Day happening last weekend, I was a little busy to remember this...

I think their definition of trails is faulty, in that they are calling deactivated logging roads, and railroad beds trails. It seems that anything they can get designated as a trail is immediately taken away from motorized use, and from my point of view, much of what this group is likely to designate as a trail is actually historically a road of some sort. We need to be on this. We need to ensure that we are looked upon as stakeholders here. The only way that's gonna happen is if we get involved.

There are also meetings in Cranbrook on the 15th, Kamloops on the 20th (which I'll attend) and Williams Lake on the 22nd of January.

Dave

Yes, the forum is inactive, communication from the association has been less than poor, but the Association has not been inactive......Kathy and I were at this meeting I had a conversation with John Hawkings, Trail Manager for MoTCA, after the meeting and fully expect that the 4WDABC will be included in the next stages of this initiative. To date, our (4x4 vehicle) representation in the creation of this draft strategy has been from what the Outdoor Recreation Council has presented....and of course therefore has had a slant toward quads/snowmobiles, but the information presented at that meeting and the general tone of every government agency/official I have dealt with in the last year (with one minor exception) has been very positive with respect to continued 4x4 vehicle access to what we have considered to be trails.

Letter sent to Trails Strategy Committee by Dave Tebbutt:


My name is Dave Tebbutt , I am a member of the Roverlanders of B.C. Normally I manage to find information readily within local news media on public meetings that are being held. This wasn’t the case with the meeting regarding your Trails Strategy, Was it advertised locally, and I missed it?? A member, posted on the Roverlanders site, unfortunately I didn’t see it until after 6:15 pm, so I didn’t arrive to the meeting until after 7:00pm. Missing most of your presentation.

I have now had a chance to look through your draft Trails Strategy for British Columbia. My first concern is that nowhere are 4X4 vehicles mentioned and looking at the list of the committee responsible for the development of the strategy there was no representation of any four wheel drive clubs! I would think that the four wheel drive community would certainly be of sufficient size to warrant some representation!!

The Roverlanders are currently involved with the maintenance and stewardship of the Whipsaw Trail, and individual members have also helped the Four Wheel Drive Assn with clean up and maintenance on the Sunrise lake campsite and trail.

In my opinion the 4X4 community has been the most adversely affected of all the groups over the years. The abandoned railbeds, are now, for the most part reserved exclusively for hikers and mountain bike use. Considering that the surface and the substrate were built for the extreme weight of a locomotive this seems to make little sense. Likewise, many forestry and mining roads, especially those that now make up the Trans Canada Trail, have been denied to us. Many forestry /logging roads have been gated and although I have been told I can get a key, it would mean a trip to the company’s head office during working hours, that does not add up to public access to public lands!!

As a group we enjoy older roads and the challenges they provide. We, by using these roads, keep them open for other groups, they grow over rapidly! The natural erosion from the elements either provide more of a challenge, or an opportunity to repair the damage, either way, as a group we are extremely low maintenance!

Why is it that so many special interest stake holders get exclusive rights, why not leave trails for the use of all groups, I seem to be able to get along with them!!

Letter sent to Trails Strategy Committee by Dave Blair:

My name is David Blair. I live in Armstrong, BC. I am the immediate past president of the Rover-Landers of BC and am involved with the Four Wheel Drive Association of BC, as well as the Blue Ribbon Coalition in the USA. These groups all aspire towards enjoyment of the outdoors for all types of recreational use, not limited to hikers, bikers and horses, but also open to responsible motorized trail use as well. My area of interest is motorized 4 wheel drive exploration, not off-roading per se, but it is best described as "Overland Expedition". "Tread Lightly" is the motto we live by on the trail.

I, as a member and executive of the Rover-Landers of BC, take an active role in maintaining a BC Recreational site (through an agreement with M0TCA and the 4WDABC), and the world renown "Whipsaw Trail", which runs from off of Highway 3 south of Princeton to Coalmont, just north of Princeton. This trail has recently (2007) received recognition as one of the most outstanding off-road vehicle trails in North America, and the only Canadian Trail to receive such recognition. As a result it has brought overland travel enthusiasts from far outside of BC into the Princeton area to drive the trail. The BF Goodrich Outstanding Trails program has attracted a following of enthusiasts driving trails in locations all over North America and we are proud that the Whipsaw is one of these trails.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the BC Trails Strategy Draft. I appreciate some of the hurdles you folks have gone through to get to this point and want to encourage you to keep up the good work going forward! I attended the meeting in Kamloops on January 20th, 2009 and have several comments I would like to put forward.

1. It is my opinion that due to the lack of licensing and enforcement, a few irresponsible operators are ruining the reputation of many responsible operators, and I agree with licensing of ATVs, Motorcycles, Snowmobiles and all types of motorized vehicles. I would also like to see the recent mud bogging legislation enforced, and the first big enforcement case publicized as a deterrent to others. I believe with education we can contain much of the "Bubba factor" that goes on from time to time on our trails.

2. I've read the entire draft and am hopeful, from what I've read that no single interest group is able to adopt this as a tool to exclude other interest groups from recreational activities. ON the other hand, at the meeting it was quite obvious that several of these special interest groups would like to exclude all others and something of a NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude exists towards types of recreation they are not interested in. It will take some time to come to the right compromises on these issues, but this document is an important starting point.

3. It is important to remember that not all British Columbians that enjoy outdoor recreation are super-fit hikers and riders. A majority of us are likely reflected by the look of those typical to the meeting I went to, some fit, some average, some couch potatoes and some handicapped. As a result I believe its important to consider, when creating a trail, not only who it's for, but who you exclude by creating it. I agree that not every trail is for every type of user, but if many of the trails limit or remove access to other users by their designation, you are hurting a large proportion of the population by doing so.

4. Page 25 of your draft refers to one of your goals being to ensure that when a trail is classified, that it is done so according to the most appropriate uses. Over the past few years (decades?) the designation of so many rail road beds as walking and biking only is an example of where this has simply been overlooked when a traiis designated. In my opinion we are paying the price of that now with constant conflict between ATVers, hikers, horses, etc. all wanting to use these major corridors for their own purposes. If this consideration had been made in the first place, I don't think these trails would have been classified as they are now. Going forward, I believe this is one of the most important considerations in determining how to classify a trail, if you expect your strategy to be embraced by users in the future.

Congratulations on the work accomplished to date. It is no small accomplishment to see so many interests sitting together in one room talking about the same thing.

Best regards,
David Blair